Legislative Assembly · District of Hastings
Chloe Coulson
Last verified 30 Sept 2026
Seat context — Hastings›
Hastings is a highly marginal Mornington Peninsula seat covering Hastings, Somerville, Langwarrin and French Island on the western shore of Western Port. The Liberals' Neale Burgess held it at the 2018 election; in 2022 Labor's Paul Mercurio, a former dancer and actor and Mornington Peninsula councillor, gained it, winning 51.4% two-party-preferred against the Liberals' Briony Hutton despite trailing on first preferences (39.8% Liberal to 37.3% Labor). The margin is about 1.4 points. Mercurio is recontesting, and The Tally Room calls the seat a key Liberal target. The 2026 field found is five candidates: Mercurio, the Liberals' Frank Schiefler, the Greens' Isaac Willoughby, One Nation's Peter Angelico and the Animal Justice Party's Chloe Coulson. No Victorian Socialists candidate has been found.
Background
Platform
Where they stand, issue by issue — grounded in 2026 Victorian polling, not assumed. Every position is tagged with how we know it.
No personal statement of priorities was found.
What Victorians say matters most
5 poll-led issuesCost of living and crime have ranked 1st or 2nd in every Victorian poll since mid‑2025, with debt and housing close behind — see schema §3 for the polling this grouping is based on (DemosAU, Ipsos Issues Monitor, Roy Morgan). The 0-10 'priorityScore' on each candidate's issue entries is NOT a measure of true importance or an independent ranking of what a candidate actually cares about. It reflects how much detail and specificity exists in what that candidate has actually said publicly on that issue -- a named policy mechanism and a verified voting record score higher than a one-line stated priority, regardless of the issue's real-world weight. Render this distinction in the UI wherever the score appears; do not label it just 'Priority' without the qualifier.
Cost of living
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Crime and community safety
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Housing affordability and supply
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
State government debt and fiscal management
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Infrastructure and public transport delivery
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Also on the record
6 substance issuesThese don't top “biggest issue” polling, but carry real 2026 policy weight and genuine differences between parties.
Education and training
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Health and healthcare access
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Urban planning and housing density
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Climate and energy transition
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Treaty and First Nations affairs
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Regional and rural Victoria
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Local & party context
2 fieldsNot scored the way the eleven issues above are — these are fixed facts about the seat and the party, not positions with more or less emphasis behind them.
The Tally Room and Wikipedia's 2026 candidates table list her as the Animal Justice Party's Hastings candidate. RReported — TALLYROOM-HASTINGS, WIKI-2026CANDSThe Tally Room, "Hastings — Victoria 2026"View sourceWikipedia, "Candidates of the 2026 Victorian state election"View source
No Animal Justice Party 2026 platform or personal statement was retrieved, so all issues are left empty.
Track record & prior candidacies
Campaign, money & endorsements
Campaign logistics
Endorsements & Donations
Per the Victorian Electoral Commission's funding guidance (vec.vic.gov.au, accessed 2026-09-29 via search snippets of its independent-candidate and registered-party funding pages), a candidate is eligible for public election funding if they receive at least 4% of first-preference votes in their contest, or are elected. Funding is reimbursed against an audited statement of campaign expenditure, and advance funding must be repaid in full if the threshold is missed.
No earlier candidacy was found for Coulson. The Animal Justice Party's 2022 Hastings candidate polled 4.2%, just above the 4% mark.