Screen grab of Facebook post by Sean Armistead. He also posted about her work defending a woman who murdered her ex-mother-in-law saying he looked forward to seeing more about who she had defended "and the heinous crimes they have been convicted of". Ms Murphy said the online comments reflected badly on him. "It shows a fundamental poor understanding of our legal system. I think the community wants better than that, I would expect better in the campaign than these personal ignorant comments," she said. Mr Armistead said all voters were entitled to know what work candidates had done in the past. He said he understood how the legal system worked.

Ms Murphy, who was justice policy advisor to Labor frontbencher and judge Duncan Kerr, spent time at Robert Stary's​ firm and ran her own trial practice. Among her work she was part of the defence team for home-grown terrorist Shane Kent, who was sentenced to five years' jail in 2009 after he pleaded guilty to being a member of a Melbourne terror cell. Ms Murphy sees Mr Kerr, who she worked for in Canberra, as a mentor. After the 2001 federal election she left the capital to seek experience in "the real world" by working as a lawyer, particularly in legal aid. "I made a decision that I didn't want to spend my life as an adviser or working in politics and not have gone and worked anywhere else, to bring that experience," Ms Murphy said. Winning the seat, which includes Frankston, Mornington and Mount Eliza, is likely to get tougher now that Malcolm Turnbull has risen to the Prime Ministership.

Prior to last week's coup the seat, held by frontbencher Bruce Billson, was in Labor's sights despite the 5.6 per cent margin. "In Dunkley we have suburbs and communities that are seriously struggling under the weight of youth unemployment, some of the suburbs are full of people that just want to get out of that cycle, that is part of my motivation of getting involved," Ms Murphy said. Originally from Wagga Wagga, Ms Murphy and her husband – public sector consultant Rod Glover – moved to Mount Eliza from Melbourne's city in 2012, where she continued to work in legal aid. More recently she has worked with the Law Reform Commission, including on a report into the role of victims of crime in the criminal justice process. In 2011 Ms Murphy's life was turned upside down, when at 37, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"It sounds like a cliche but at the end of that we wanted to make sure we did something with out lives," she said.