One Nation’s Victorian candidate fees draw complaints from election hopefuls

One Nation is asking people seeking to run in Victoria’s November state election to pay a $150 application fee and, if selected, a further $5,500 to campaign, according to separate reports by the Guardian and ABC News. Former applicants say the charges and selection process have left them frustrated. The party says it uses a cost-recovery model for candidate checks and has paid candidate fees into its Victorian state campaign account.

The amounts matter to prospective candidates deciding whether they can afford to stand. The Guardian, citing invoices it saw, reported that the $150 application fee was non-refundable. It said candidates were told during interviews that they would need to contribute $5,500 of their own money if preselected. ABC’s Four Corners also reported those two charges after speaking with would-be candidates.

How the projected total was calculated

One Nation told the Guardian that 1,209 people had expressed interest in running and approximately 220 reached the final stage. If each person at that stage paid $150, the Guardian calculated, application fees would total about $33,000. The report also estimated $72,000 in membership fees, using a minimum annual fee of $60 for applicants expected to join the party.

The Guardian’s estimate of up to $633,000 assumes the party fields 88 lower-house candidates and eight upper-house candidates. At $5,500 apiece, those 96 campaign contributions would total $528,000; adding the estimated application and membership fees produces the overall figure. It is a projection based on those assumptions, not a reported final amount collected.

Applicants describe the selection process

Multiple former councillors and mayors who sought selection told the Guardian they felt the process was ‘pay-to-play’ after being rejected. A complaint letter from a former Victorian mayor, which the Guardian said it had seen, alleged that decisions appeared to have been substantially made before applicants were assessed. Those are the applicants’ characterisations and the letter writer’s allegation, not an established finding about how candidates were chosen.

Applicants told the Guardian that interviews lasted about 15 minutes and that they were required to sign non-disclosure agreements concerning the process. Four Corners separately spoke with six would-be candidates who described the selection as slow, chaotic or lacking merit. Their accounts raise questions about how the party assessed a large field of applicants ahead of the election.

Former Queensland MP Aidan McLindon told Four Corners he had been approached about a leadership role in Victoria, then had his application rejected following a disagreement with Warren Pickering, who became the party’s state leader. McLindon described the process as ‘very sloppy, ad hoc, probably pre-determined and dishonest’. His account does not establish that selection decisions were predetermined.

Michael Labrador, a Whittlesea councillor, told Four Corners he won preselection but decided against running. He said the $5,500 contribution was a decisive factor and that he learned of it at the end of his interview. His experience shows that the charge affected at least one successful applicant’s decision, as well as prompting complaints from people who were rejected.

Four Corners also reported a different assessment from Michael Piastrino, One Nation’s candidate for Berwick. He said he was pleased with the process and called the vetting professional. The accounts from applicants therefore differ on the quality of selection, even as the two reports identify the same $150 application fee and $5,500 contribution for selected candidates.

What the account rules establish

The Victorian Electoral Commission says a state campaign account holds money associated with state elections and separates it from funds for administration, operations and federal elections. Its published guidance says political donations for state elections and public funding it provides must be paid into such an account. That guidance explains the account requirement; it does not verify the destination of each One Nation payment.

One Nation’s statement to the Guardian is the reported basis for saying its candidate fees went into the Victorian account. The available reporting does not provide an independently verified account balance or an allocation of the $5,500 fee among campaign costs. It also does not establish whether the handling of these particular payments satisfies every applicable electoral rule.

The fees are part of a wider Victorian candidate rollout ahead of the November poll. More on the party’s candidates appears in the related report, ‘One Nation rolls out more Victorian election candidates’. The immediate unanswered question for applicants is how the campaign contribution will be spent; the projected maximum will also depend on how many candidates ultimately run and pay it.