The Federal Court has ordered green signs urging voters to "put Labor last" to be removed from Melbourne polling stations after an election-day challenge from the Labor Party.
Labor lodged the court bid this morning, after writing to the Australian Electoral Commission to say members of its campaign team witnessed people putting up signs in the knife-edge seat of Higgins.
The ALP said the posters had also been put up in the electorates of nearby Goldstein, and in McEwen and Hawke on Melbourne's peri-urban fringe.
Labor said the signs were "misleading" as they used the same colour scheme as the Greens Party but instead purported to be authorised by a Hendrick Fourey of the Business Owners and Contractors Union.
The union's website says the group was formed in 2019 and "brings together and represents small-medium business owners and contractors".
In an earlier Twitter post, the Greens called the signs "desperate tricks".
Member for Higgins Katie Allen denied any knowledge of the signs, while the Victorian Liberal Party said it did not authorise the election materials.
The AEC confirmed with the ABC it had received a complaint about the signs and was reviewing the matter.
Its injunction orders that any officer of the AEC is authorised to now remove the signs.
The commission was unable to disturb the election material until the injunction was ordered.
The electorate of Higgins was held by Liberal Katie Allen on a margin of 2.6 per cent after the 2019 poll.
The seat in Melbourne's inner south-east has been held by the Liberal Party since its creation in 1949 and has been held by two former prime ministers — John Gorton and Harold Holt.
Traditionally a safe Liberal seat, Higgins — like many inner-city electorates in Melbourne — has experienced a rise in support for the Greens in recent years.
Dr Allen is being challenged by Labor candidate Michelle Ananda-Rajah, a doctor, and Greens candidate Sonya Semmens, who works in the non-profit sector.
Liberal Party lodges complaint over Chinese-language signs in Kooyong
The Liberal Party has lodged its own separate complaint to the AEC over signage in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong.
The complaint states that how-to-vote cards and corflutes for independent candidate Monique Ryan are written in Chinese, but are authorised solely in English.
If election material is written in another language, AEC requirements dictate that authorisation must be notified in both English and the language used.
The ABC has independently sighted one of Dr Ryan's posters which did not have any Chinese-language authorisation message.
The AEC told the ABC it was aware of the authorisations and understood that rectifications were being put in place to have the full, appropriate authorisation statement on the products.
A spokesperson for Dr Ryan denied the allegations and said authorisation requirements on all election material had been met.
"All Chinese election campaign material used by Dr Ryan's campaign, including How to Vote cards, are properly authorised in the correct languages," the spokesperson said.
In a copy of the letter from the Liberal Party to Dr Ryan seen by the ABC, lawyers said "we note you have stated they are correctly authorised".
"However, contrary to this assertion your campaign has told the AEC that you are rectifying inappropriate authorisation on these same materials," the letter said.
"We demand that you immediately remove from display or distribution these unauthorised signs and how-to-vote cards."
The seat of Kooyong is set to be hotly contested, with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg facing down a challenge from Dr Ryan.
Dr Ryan is one of 23 "teal" independents running under the banner of the Climate 200 group, funded by activist billionaire Simon Holmes à Court.
The election campaign has been marked by breaches of the Commonwealth's electoral act.
Signs authorised by conservative lobby group Advance Australia falsely depicted independent candidates David Pocock and Zali Steggall as members of the Greens.
In 2019, a senior Victorian Liberal Party figure admitted in court that Chinese-language signs used in two Melbourne seats at the last federal election were designed to convey the appearance of official AEC material.
