The Public Ledger

Legislative Assembly · District of Greenvale

Jim Overend

Last verified 30 Sept 2026

Liberal
Candidate photo — pending
Seat context — Greenvale›
Illustration pending

Greenvale is a Labor-held seat in Melbourne's outer north-west, covering Greenvale, Attwood, Meadow Heights, Roxburgh Park, Somerton and Westmeadows. It was created for the 2022 election from parts of the former seat of Yuroke, and Labor's Iwan Walters won it with 41.5% of first preferences and 57.1% two-party-preferred against the Liberals' Usman Ghani, a 14.9-point swing against Labor and a margin of about 7 points. He is recontesting. The Tally Room notes an east-west divide between areas with larger Muslim populations and areas that are more European in background. The 2026 field found is five candidates: Walters, the Liberals' Jim Overend, One Nation's Chris Moore, the Victorian Socialists' Kirill Smelov and the Animal Justice Party's Rosanna Furina. No Greens candidate has been found, and Wikipedia's 2026 table leaves Moore and Smelov without party labels.

Identity & ballot position§ 01
House
Legislative Assembly
Seat
Greenvale
Incumbent
No
Party
Liberal
Ballot position
Not yet assigned
§ 02

Background

Occupation / profession
Is a disability employment advocate. SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source
Prior public roles
Has served on Hume City Council for six years, and says his advocacy helped secure duplication of Mickleham, Somerton and Craigieburn Roads. SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source
Local ties
Has lived in Craigieburn for more than 40 years and raised three children there; founded the Craigieburn Car, Truck and Bike Show for children with brain cancer, and is involved with Selwyn House and the Craigieburn Rotary Club. SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source
Education
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
§ 03

Platform

Where they stand, issue by issue — grounded in 2026 Victorian polling, not assumed. Every position is tagged with how we know it.

Stated top campaign priorities

Safer streets, better infrastructure and stronger local services.

SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source

What Victorians say matters most

5 poll-led issues

Cost 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

iWhat this coversPosition on everyday household costs — groceries, utilities, insurance, transport.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Crime and community safety

iWhat this coversPosition on crime rates, policing and community safety, including youth crime and bail law.
Candidate’s priority4 / 10

Wants safer streets.

SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source

Housing affordability and supply

iWhat this coversPosition on home ownership costs, rental affordability, and housing supply/planning.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

State government debt and fiscal management

iWhat this coversPosition on debt levels and what they mean for future taxes and service funding.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Infrastructure and public transport delivery

iWhat this coversPosition on congestion, commute reliability, and cost/timeline overruns on major projects.
Candidate’s priority6 / 10

Says his council advocacy helped secure duplication of Mickleham, Somerton and Craigieburn Roads and wants better infrastructure.

SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source

Also on the record

6 substance issues

These don't top “biggest issue” polling, but carry real 2026 policy weight and genuine differences between parties.

Education and training

iWhat this coversPosition on school funding and infrastructure, curriculum and teaching quality, university funding and research, and TAFE/VET.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Health and healthcare access

iWhat this coversPosition on hospital and clinic funding, GP/specialist access and wait times, and ambulance performance including ramping.
Candidate’s priority3 / 10

Wants stronger local services and is a disability employment advocate.

SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source

Urban planning and housing density

iWhat this coversPosition on zoning and density, heritage and consultation processes, urban sprawl versus infill, and access to parks and green space.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Climate and energy transition

iWhat this coversPosition on renewable energy targets, offshore wind delivery, transmission infrastructure, and the reinstated State Electricity Commission.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Treaty and First Nations affairs

iWhat this coversPosition on implementing the Statewide Treaty and the new Gellung Warl representative body, and on future local treaties.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Regional and rural Victoria

iWhat this coversPosition on water security, the native-forest-logging transition, road and service funding, and population decline in country towns.
Candidate’s priority0 / 10

Not detailed in sources reviewed.

Local & party context

2 fields

Not 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.

Seat-specific issues
Road duplications on Mickleham, Somerton and Craigieburn Roads. SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source
Party platform alignment

The Tally Room and Wikipedia's 2026 candidates table list him as the Liberals' Greenvale candidate. RReported — TALLYROOM-GREENVALE, WIKI-2026CANDSThe Tally Room, "Greenvale — Victoria 2026"View sourceWikipedia, "Candidates of the 2026 Victorian state election"View source

No personal or party policy detail was retrieved, so all issues are left empty.

Their profile presents them as part of Jess Wilson's Liberal team, and the policies it names are the party's own plan rather than independent positions of theirs. SSelf-stated — LIBV-JIM-OVERENDLiberal Victoria, "Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile" (9 July 2026)View source

V VerifiedS Self-statedR Reported— hover or tap any mark for what it means
§ 04

Track record & prior candidacies

Terms served
No elected office found.
Portfolios held
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Notable votes, bills, committee work
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Previous candidacies
He is not among the candidates in the 2022 Greenvale results; the Liberals' candidate was Usman Ghani (25.4%). VVerified — WIKI-GRV-RESWikipedia, "Electoral results for the district of Greenvale"View source
§ 05–08

Campaign, money & endorsements

Campaign logistics

Social
Not detailed in sources reviewed.
Contact
jim.overend@vic.liberal.org.au (per their Liberal Victoria profile).
How-to-vote card
Not yet published

Endorsements & Donations

Organisational
None reported in sources reviewed.
Individual
None reported in sources reviewed.
VEC disclosure
Not yet available.
Public funding

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.

Overend has not previously contested this seat. The Liberals' 2022 Greenvale candidate polled 25.4%, well above the 4% mark.

Dataset housekeeping

Nomination status
Expected — Listed as the Liberal candidate for Greenvale by Liberal Victoria's public team API and the Australian Election Tracker (per the 2026-09-24 gap audit), The Tally Room and Wikipedia's 2026 candidates table; no profile page could be retrieved. No VEC nomination lodged yet — nominations close 4 November 2026. Re-checked 2026-09-30: Liberal Victoria's own profile (via the public API behind vicliberal.org.au) is now used, resolving the earlier 404 and script-rendering gap.
Last verified
30 Sept 2026
Sources
See the Source register below — every V/S/R mark on this page names its specific source on hover.

Source register

TALLYROOM-GREENVALE
The Tally Room, “Greenvale — Victoria 2026” — Election analysis site — View source · accessed 30 Sept 2026
WIKI-2026CANDS
Wikipedia, “Candidates of the 2026 Victorian state election” — Encyclopedia (crowdsourced) — View source · accessed 30 Sept 2026
WIKI-GRV-RES
Wikipedia, “Electoral results for the district of Greenvale” — Encyclopedia (crowdsourced) — View source · accessed 30 Sept 2026
LIBV-JIM-OVEREND
Liberal Victoria, “Jim Overend — Liberal candidate profile” (9 July 2026) — Party's own material — View source · accessed 30 Sept 2026