One Nation has launched its Victorian election campaign, vowing to legalise the personal use of pepper spray, abolish the state’s treaty with Indigenous people, and scrap payroll tax in regional Victoria.
A social media post announcing its policy to “make it cheaper and easier to set up new businesses in Victoria” featured an AI-generated image of a “taaditional [sic] fish n’chips” shop.
One Nation used its official campaign launch at Crown Casino to unveil candidates for the state’s upper house and all 88 lower house electorates.
These candidates include a former Liberal who has won support from alleged underworld figures, a naturopath who has endorsed Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that paracetamol is linked to autism and a former shire councillor who lost his licence for drink-driving.
The party is understood to have again prevented reporters from certain media outlets from attending the launch. It has previously barred the ABC, Guardian, and the Age from its media events. The Guardian did not attempt to attend Saturday’s launch.
The Herald Sun reported that Northern Metropolitan candidate and creator of the party’s Please Explain Cartoon, Mark Nicholson, vowed at the launch that if One Nation won the election, former premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan would be “in prison by Christmas”.
Details of other policies were scant online, but a 63-page document was reportedly circulated at the event that included plans to “gang up on gangs”.
Images of the document show it was described as One Nation’s policy platform and “The Real Deal for Victoria”, with a focus on restoring safety, prosperity and trust.
According to the party’s website on Saturday afternoon, an “update [was] in progress” regarding its crime policy.
The party’s Victorian state president, Warren Pickering, told radio 3AW Melbourne on Friday that crime and bail remained a top priority for One Nation.
“[It] is the key issue in the state right now and people need to feel safe in their homes and places of work once more,” he said.
“You make that happen by taking a pragmatic approach, not an expensive one, to ensuring we get more police on the streets, get our empty stations manned and ensure bail laws and sentences are fitting with the crimes.”
The party claimed in social media posts that more than 1,000 people attended the launch, but other estimates put the crowd at several hundred lower than that. A smaller group of protesters outside were monitored by police.
The party has come under fire for practices that could see it collect as much as $633,000 from people who have nominated for the Victorian election, with some potential candidates questioning whether the party is staging a “cash grab”.
While the party has fashioned itself as representing the working class, its founder Pauline Hanson has faced a series of revelations about her links to billionaire Gina Rinehart, including exclusive use of a private jet, and staying at her multimillion-dollar homes.
– Additional reporting by Australian Associated Press
