A candidate endorsed by the United Australia Party told an anti-lockdown rally she wanted to say “hang Dan Andrews” but said she was “not allowed”, before continuing a chant of “jail Dan Andrews”, according to footage of the event.
Clive Palmer’s party last week announced candidates for all 151 lower house seats, and attempted to boost their profile by publishing their names, photographs, and phone numbers in major Australian newspapers.
One of its candidates, Rebekah Spelman, helped MC last year’s anti-lockdown rallies in Melbourne. Footage of the 13 November rally, posted online by an “alternative” news outlet, shows Spelman leading the crowd in a chant of “jail Dan Andrews”.
At one point she says: “Jail Dan Andrews! I want to say hang Dan Andrews, but I know that’s not allowed.”
Spelman, a former councillor with Melbourne’s Frankston city council, is now running for the UAP in the seat of Aston, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Spelman referred all questions about her apparent “hang Dan Andrews” comments to the United Australia party. A spokesperson for the party did not respond to multiple emails, texts, and phone calls.
The party has run a vast advertising campaign in an attempt to boost its profile and those of its lower house candidates. Guardian Australia has previously reported that the party spent $2.684m on 25 YouTube ads from late August, when former the Liberal MP Craig Kelly joined the UAP, until November, boosting the number of views on its videos into the millions.
The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age reported on Monday that the party had since spent $31m, citing figures from Nielsen Ad Intel for print, digital, metropolitan television, and radio.
The amount is equal to the UAP’s total ad spend during the 2019 campaign.
The advertising has prompted controversy on a number of fronts.
Three out of every four UAP video ads on YouTube, which Spelman was not involved in, were pulled by Google for allegedly violating the tech giant’s advertising policies. Meanwhile its recent use of a picture of a different candidate in military uniform in advertising prompted anger from defence advocates, who said it went against longstanding conventions designed to guard against the politicisation of the Australian Defence Force.
Some newspapers have also refused to publish UAP ads that they say are at odds with Covid health advice or official guidance on vaccines.
Earlier this month Kelly signalled the UAP would put all sitting members of parliament last on its how-to-vote cards, which has prompted anxiety among government MPs. The Coalition benefited in the 2019 election from preference flows from the UAP.
But Kelly, the former maverick Liberal and now UAP leader, says his party’s strategy could well change depending on where MPs line up in the final sitting weeks.
