I asked a mexican who
ran a bar for americans “who won”
I said “the election?” he laughed and I felt
like a gringo
It’s that time again!
Leaving aside The Usual Suspects (Labor, Liberal/Nationals and Greens), you can find a ‘highly-simplified’ guide to the minor and micro-parties contesting the 2022 Victorian state election here.
Otherwise:
Communisms
Last time, I wrote 2018 Victorian state election : far right (and left) candidates and 2018 Victorian state election : Left / Right : Results!.
There’s been some slight settling of contents since then, with the departure in May 2020 of the Socialist Alliance (SAll) from the Victorian Socialists (VS). As a result, SAll will be running independently of VS, in the following seats: Arie Huybregts in Broadmeadows (where Huybregts will be pitted against Omar Hassan of VS), Angela Carr in Geelong, Sarah Hathway in Lara and Sue Bolton in Pascoe Vale (where Sue will be facing off with Madaleine Hah of VS). Because SAll is unregistered in Victoria, they all appear as independents on the ballot.
VS, on the other hand, is fielding 22 candidates for Lower House seats in northern and western Melbourne, and is also contesting each of the eight regions in the Upper House — which, notwithstanding SAll’s withdrawal, is a considerable increase on 2018’s effort. Back then, VS got close to winning a seat in the Upper House in the Northern Metropolitan region and fared reasonably well in a number of other Lower House seats (though naturally came nowhere close to winning one). The party seems bullish on its chances of picking up at least one seat in the bourgeois parliament this time around, and it would be quite remarkable if it succeeded in doing so. Much, however, would seem to depend on preference flows in Northern Metropolitan. Certainly, their results can no longer be compared to those of wealthy Perth gadabout Debbie Robinson’s vanity projekt ‘Australian Liberty Alliance’ (2015–2019) which, after having briefly assumed working-class drag as ‘Yellow Vests Australia’, finally collapsed in an ignominious heap in mid-2020.
• Oh. I should also add that, having contested the seat of Albert Park in 2018, in 2022 Dr Joseph Toscano has set his sights on Mulgrave, where he’s one of 13 rivals to #DictatorDan; also of relevance is the Legalise Cannabis Party.
See also : Victorian Socialists – for real change, look beyond the ballot box, Black Flag Sydney, November 17, 2022.
Freedumbs
On the freedumb-loving right there’s a plethora of candidates, running both as members of political parties and as independents. You could even say the voter is being offered an embarrassment of riches in this regard. Hence, in addition to:–
• Angry Victorians Party (The Party formerly known as The Australian Values Party)
• Freedom Party of Victoria
• Health Australia Party
• Liberal Democrats
• Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party
• Restore Democracy Sack Dan Andrews Party
• United Australia Party
— Riccardo Bosi (AKA ‘AustraliaOne Party’) has endorsed James Laurie in Bendigo East, Darren Bergwerf in Frankston, Sonia Brymer in Mildura, Craig Cole in Monbulk, Dominique Murphy in Oakleigh and Denes Borsos in Polwarth.
While the above have their differences, all are either competing for the angry, disgruntled Tory; the upset Laborite; and/or the determined anti-vaXXer/‘Hang Dan Andrews!’ vote: or what political scientists have dubbed the cooker vote. This segment is (to some, seemingly increasing extent) also being appealed to by the Tories, with a recent advertising campaign portraying Lobster Guy’s mob as a true fren of the angwy lockdown protester of yesteryear. As a further nod to the right-wing loon voting public, ‘The Victorian Liberal Party has preferenced Labor behind a woman who publicly called for Premier Daniel Andrews to be hanged, in a Melbourne upper-house seat’ … which is, ah, pretty mean? The Tories are also being challenged in several seats by liberal independents, often called ‘teals’, including Sophie Torney in Kew, Melissa Lowe in Hawthorn and Kate Lardner in Mornington.
By the same token, Dictator Dan has to contend with several ex-Labor hacks. This includes Kaushaliya Vaghela, MLC for the Western Metropolitan Region, the first Indian-born MP to be elected to the Victorian Parliament and now (October 2022) leader of something called the ‘New Democrats’. ND is contesting 10 Lower House seats and all 8 regions in the Upper. Meanwhile Adem Somyurek, the ‘Member for South-Eastern Metropolitan Region, author, former faceless man, drainer of Dan’s swamp, only verified clean MP in Australia’ is — after briefly seeming to have abandoned his comfy seat in parliament — now trying to retain it as a ‘Democratic Labor’ man.
Sadly, it appears that the one, solitary, lonesome candidate Dr Jim Saleam’s ‘Australia First Party’ ran in 2018 has been reduced to zero. (Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated was deregistered as a federal party in January but it remains registered in NSW for local council elections.)
• Finally, the Group Voting Ticket (GVT) system that operates in Victoria has provided fun and profit to many over the years, especially to cheeky buggers like Glenn Druery. Serious commentators like Antony Green, on the other hand, think it’s rotten, mostly because the results don’t accurately reflect voters’ intentions. In 2022, Ben Raue reckons it’s a story of three blocs: a loose alliance of minor parties engineered by Druery, ‘a smaller left bloc of parties who have preferenced each other and the ALP and Greens, and another bloc of parties on the right who have preferenced the Coalition highly and seem to have only engaged in more simple preference swaps’.
See also : Leaked video shows Glenn Druery bragging of working with CFMEU to help Labor hobble Greens, Benita Kolovos and Adeshola Ore, The Guardian, November 17, 2022 | The Tally Room on Victoria 2022 and The Poll Bludger on Victorian Election 2022.
