A Liberal candidate who styled herself as a renter despite owning multiple properties is the beneficiary of a family trust worth $20million, Daily Mail can reveal.
Amelia Hamer, 31, came under scrutiny last week when it was revealed she owns two apartments in London and Canberra despite pitching herself to voters as a renter who lived in a one-bedroom apartment.
Now Daily Mail can reveal that Ms Hamer is also the beneficiary of a trust established by her great-grandmother which owns assets worth about $20million.
Details of the trust were included in a December Supreme Court of Victoria decision by Justice Claire Harris.
The trust was established by Ms Hamer’s great-grandmother, Ethel McPherson, in 1972.
The late Liberal politician David Hamer and his wife Barbara were the beneficiaries along with their descendants, which include their granddaughter Ms Hamer.
Shares in a family investment company were transferred to the trust and over time its assets had ‘grown in value to around $20million,’ Justice Harris said.
There were distributions of $60,000 to all beneficiaries in 2020, and also unspecified distributions to beneficiaries including Ms Hamer in 2021 and 2022.
The matter had reached court because the trustee wanted to extend the vesting date of the trust, among other changes to the deed of settlement which the judge approved.
In response to queries on Wednesday afternoon, Ms Hamer told Daily Mail : ‘I am listed as a beneficiary in a family trust via my late great-grandmother, along with 11 other relatives.
‘I have no oversight or control of the trust.’
It comes after the Oxford-educated Ms Hamer, standing in the teal-held seat of Kooyong in Victoria, was profiled in the n Financial Review last year as a ‘renter wanting to get into the housing market’.
During her campaign Ms Hamer repeatedly said she was renting an apartment without mentioning she was also a landlord.
‘I know my rent’s gone up significantly, I’m a renter,’ she told Nine’s Today Show.
She also suggested on the podcast Madame Speaker that her apartment was so small it had put her off having children.
‘I’m looking around my flat and going, well, I don’t actually know where the kids would go,’ she said.
Although Ms Hamer does rent in Hawthorn, she also owns an apartment in Canberra and a $1.46million flat in south-west London, according to property records seen by The Age.
It’s possible Ms Hamer used distributions from her family trust to make deposits on her apartments.
She lived in London between 2014 and 2020 while she worked for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and investment firm DST Global.
She also worked in Canberra as a policy adviser to then-cabinet minister Jane Hume between January 2021 and July 2022.
Her profile on the Liberal Party website describes her as a ‘fintech executive’ who has also worked as a director of strategy at payment platform Airwallex.
Ms Hamer’s family has a storied political history.
Her grandfather David Hamer served as a Liberal MP and a Senator for Victoria, and her great uncle, Rupert Hamer, was a Liberal Victorian Premier.
The race in Kooyong had already heated up before revelations emerged about Ms Hamer’s trust and property holdings, when the husband of teal incumbent Monique Ryan was filmed taking down one of Ms Hamer’s signs.
An agitated Peter Jordan was caught on video marching away with one of Ms Hamer’s placards under his arm, refusing to say who he was – though his teal shirt was something of a giveaway.
Mr Jordan later apologised and admitted he had made a ‘mistake’.
Daily Mail has contacted Ms Hamer for comment.