Legislative Assembly · District of Kew
David Sun
Last verified 21 Aug 2026
Seat context — Kew›
Kew covers Kew and Kew East (~31 km², 49,918 voters in 2022). Labor has never won Kew — incumbent Jess Wilson (Liberal, now Opposition Leader) holds it on a 3.98% margin.
Background
Platform
Where they stand, issue by issue — grounded in 2026 Victorian polling, not assumed. Every position is tagged with how we know it.
Backing state Labor's investment in hospitals and schools, free kindergarten, and free public transport for under-18s; positions himself as a strong local advocate.
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
Backs free public transport for under-18s.
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
Backs free kindergarten and school investment generally — no more specific position found.
Health and healthcare access
Backs hospital investment generally — no more specific position found.
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
N/A — Kew is an inner-metro seat.
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.
Track record & prior candidacies
Campaign, money & endorsements
Campaign logistics
Endorsements & Donations
Victorian Labor Party — officially listed as their candidate. VVerified — WP-CANDWikipedia, "Candidates of the 2026 Victorian state election (citing the Victorian Labor Party's own candidate listing, retrieved 2 Jun 2026)"
No union has publicly endorsed Sun by name for the Kew campaign — searches for Trades Hall/ETU/AEU/HSU/ASU backing turned up nothing specific to his candidacy, and detailed local coverage of his campaign makes no mention of union support. RReported — EMEL, TALLYRMEastern Melburnian, "Victorian Election 2026: Eastern Melbourne Candidates"View sourceThe Tally Room, "Kew — Victoria 2026"View source
This replaces the file's prior unconfirmed "would typically carry" placeholder with a real, searched negative. RReported — EMEL, TALLYRMEastern Melburnian, "Victorian Election 2026: Eastern Melbourne Candidates"View sourceThe Tally Room, "Kew — Victoria 2026"View source
No business-chamber or advocacy-group endorsement was found. RReported — LFKEWLighter Footprints, "Kew Scorecard (Kew Climate and Integrity Candidate Scorecard)"View source
The most prominent third-party candidate assessment for the seat — Lighter Footprints' Kew Climate and Integrity Candidate Scorecard — profiles Liberal incumbent Jess Wilson and independent Sophie Torney but does not feature Sun; the group rates policies rather than issuing endorsements. RReported — LFKEWLighter Footprints, "Kew Scorecard (Kew Climate and Integrity Candidate Scorecard)"View source
Under the Electoral Act 2002, Legislative Assembly candidates become eligible for public election campaign funding if they are elected or receive at least 4% of first-preference votes; the payment is calculated against the candidate's audited campaign expenditure and first-preference vote count, up to a legislated cap that is indexed annually.
Per the VEC's political-donations indexation schedule, that cap for the 2026-27 financial year (covering the 28 November 2026 election) is $7.70 per first-preference vote for Legislative Assembly candidates.
As a non-incumbent Labor challenger in a seat currently held by the Liberal Party, David Sun's eligibility for any payment — and its size — depends entirely on his first-preference vote share on election night; nothing is currently payable or disclosed for his candidacy.
Dataset housekeeping
Source register
3 of 6 source register entries are missing a confirmed URL — flagged rather than hidden, per the same standard this page holds candidates to.