Legislative Assembly · District of Sunbury
Rushi Patel
Last verified 29 Sept 2026
Seat context — Sunbury›
Sunbury is an outer north-western Melbourne seat centred on Sunbury, with Diggers Rest and Bulla, created for the 2014 election out of Macedon and held by Labor's Josh Bull ever since. Bull won it in 2022 with 43.1% of first preferences and 56.4% two-party-preferred against the Liberals' Simmone Cottom, an 8.1-point swing against Labor. He is recontesting and has been Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer since May 2026. Local issues include airport rail delays, Calder Freeway upgrades and a proposed waste-to-energy incinerator. The 2026 field found is six candidates: Bull, Cottom, One Nation's Elita Dabrowski, the Victorian Socialists' Adam Bremner, the West Party's Bruce Lancashire and the New Democrats' Rushi Patel. No Greens candidate has been found, although Wikipedia's 2026 candidates table lists Dabrowski under the Greens, which conflicts with the party's own page.
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 lists him as the New Democrats' candidate for Sunbury. RReported — TALLYROOM-SUNBURYThe Tally Room, "Sunbury — Victoria 2026"View source
No New Democrats platform 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.
Patel polled 0.5% in Sunbury in 2022, well below the 4% mark, so no public funding was earned for that contest.