Has anyone seen the elusive member for Batman?

David Feeney is the Batman candidate Labor has, but not the one who needs to be seen right now.

Factional powerbroker Feeney was often labelled one of the “faceless men” involved in replacing Kevin Rudd with Julia Gillard in 2010, but when you enter his electorate of Batman in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, it’s hard to miss his face on billboards and posters up High Street. The shadow minister for justice moved from the Senate to the House to become the member for Batman — not named after the caped crusader but for one of the founders of Melbourne, and a rather vicious hunter of the indigenous population in Tasmania, John Batman — at the last election.

The reason Labor has spent so much on billboards and posters is that the normally safe Labor seat is increasingly under threat from the Greens, with serial election candidate Alex Bhathal overtaking the Liberals to take second place at the last two elections. Before negotiating a deal with the Liberal Party to preference Labor ahead of the Greens in the seat, Labor had been worried a potential deal between the Liberals and the Greens would throw Feeney out on his ear after just one term. The relief was only momentary, however, with a robopoll conducted by the Greens last week suggesting Bhathal would have a primary vote of 41%, with Feeney dropping to 28%. That would mean that the Greens would likely win the seat on a two-party preferred basis. Betting has tightened on the seat, down from $4 for the Greens to $2.10, with Feeney still the favourite on $1.62, up from $1.15.

[An insider’s guide to political betting]

Under such a threat, you would expect Feeney would be out on the streets talking to anyone and everyone. But finding the actual member for Batman in Batman proved beyond this reporter. After he forgot to declare that he’d bought a negatively geared investment property, failed to explain Labor’s policy on the Schoolkids Bonus and left his notes behind at Sky News, Feeney has been keeping a decidedly lower profile. He has pulled out of events in his portfolio and was a notable absentee from Labor’s campaign launch in Penrith on the weekend, where the shadow ministry was featured on the stage. According to Isentia, Feeney has not been interviewed in the media since his disastrous May 25 Sky interview.

Taking the No. 86 tram up north past all the red brick houses that cover the electorate, my first port of call was the Northcote church where pre-poll commenced at 8.30am. A few elderly people head in to vote early. Outside were two Labor volunteers, three Greens volunteers, and a lone Liberal volunteer. No sign of Feeney, Bhathal, or the Liberal candidate George Souris.

As the second pre-poll location, the Salvation Army Hall, was not open (though it did provide me with an excuse to snag a cheese pie at Cedar Bakery), I went to visit Feeney’s electorate office. Surely the member would be up for a chat? Or someone would at least know where he was? No dice. A staffer told me to speak to his media adviser if I wanted to talk to Feeney, and that they’d call me. I handed over my card, then emailed Labor’s campaign HQ asking where I could find Feeney out in the electorate.

If his own staff and Labor HQ did not know where he was, maybe his rival was keeping tabs on him. So I set out to find Bhathal, running into some locals on the way, who wished me “good luck” in my quest. Another local told me on Twitter that Feeney tended to be seen in the northern part of the electorate. But a wander through the South Preston shopping centre turned up no political candidates shaking hands or kissing babies.

By 11am, I was down south in Westgarth, next to the iconic Palace cinemas. I finally found Bhathal, holding a press conference on the polls released to Fairfax earlier in the day. A group of volunteers were made to ditch their coats to stand behind Bhathal and Greens MP Adam Bandt in their bright green T-shirts on a chilly Melbourne morning, while we were careful not to get in the way of passing pedestrians or the roadworks going on in the street. It was a small turnout for the conference, with only myself and an AAP reporter in attendance. Greens staffers, however, are periscoping and posting the video of the conference on Facebook for the rest of the media.

Bhathal and her staffers didn’t know where Feeney was either — they told me he hadn’t been around much (though they would say that).

[Why I’ll never vote for the Greens: Helen Razer]

After the press conference, I receive an email from Labor campaign HQ informing me that Feeney is “busy campaigning today”. No other information provided. A follow-up email asking where exactly he was campaigning remained unanswered.

So I struck out. But Feeney told me on Twitter he was not hiding and I just hadn’t looked hard enough to find him. He tweeted a picture of himself at the Darebin Community Legal Centre and another at Victoria Police’s Iftar dinner, though the dinner was actually held on June 14, according to the media release. The member for Batman may be patrolling the area, but he is definitely not throwing up the Bat signal to alert the world to his efforts. There was no media alert for his legal centre visit, and despite repeated requests and a visit to his office, Labor refused to tell me where I could find him.

As luck would have it, there was a candidates’ forum on climate change in Northcote Town Hall, and Feeney was invited. I went along, hoping to catch a glimpse of my elusive quarry, but like his Liberal challenger, Feeney was a no-show. It is somewhat surprising considering Labor has a strong climate change policy it should be proud to defend — particularly given how badly the party was burned in this area the last time it was in office. Only about 20 people turned up to hear the six out of 11 candidates who agreed to speak about their climate change policies.

With no Liberal or Labor candidate at the forum, Bhathal was able to claim to be part of the “only parliamentary political party” acting seriously on climate change. Despite being there to argue their own causes, quite a few candidates were barracking for her. “I love Alex dearly, and I hope she wins,” independent candidate Philip Sutton said.

Holy endorsement, Batman.