Simon Frost, former acting director of the Victorian Liberals, has admitted that campaign signs written in Chinese dialects that appeared across seven electorates were — surprise, surprise — intended to look like official material from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
The signs, which adopted the purple and white colour scheme of the AEC, roughly translated to: “the correct way to vote is to put the Liberals first”.
Frost’s admission has bolstered challenges to the elections of Gladys Liu in Chisholm and Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong.
The matter is currently being heard in the Federal Court, after the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, referred the matter of the misleading posters (as well as a separate matter relating to Frydenberg’s citizenship) in September.
The court can order new elections in Chisolm and Kooyong if it decides the MPs have not been duly elected — although the AEC has opposed both challenges, given it approved the use of the signs and believes they did not affect how people cast their votes.
As Australia’s hardest-working psephologist Antony Green has made repeatedly clear on Twitter, the AEC relies on a limited definition of “misleading or deceptive publications” as related to the actual casting of a vote.
Frost’s admission, in Greens’ view, would carry more weight if it related to how-to-vote cards instead of corflutes.
Hopefully everyone keeps that in mind for 2022.
In my former career these actions and this admission would have amounted to ‘obtaining a benefit by false pretences’. Criminal prosecution would likely have followed. One can only hope that at a minimum the results in the electorates where this fraud was perpetrated, knowingly, are declared null and void, and a rerun is ordered. Anything less is a mockery and simply encourages similar or worse malpractice.
Absolutely agree, Richard. Since the L/NP have admitted why they did it, surely this behaviour CANNOT be allowed to continue into the future. It is undemocratic to begin with…we should have byelections in these two seats…and anywhere else where ‘foreign language’ signs were displayed for the same or similar reasons.
If the law does not currently allow that, then change what can only be described as bad law!!
I would have thought, that, as the speaking of English is a requirement for Australian citizenship, that the AEC should not authorize any election literature in a foreign language.
Does that put the cat amungst the pigeons?
What’s frustrating is how clear it was that these signs weren’t needed, especially for Frydenburg. Instead they cheapened the whole electoral process for no reason.
And as always, imagine if Labor had done this. I’m sure we’d still be heading about how their government is illegitimate.
Perhaps the obvious solution is that ALL political signs must be only written in English.
Isn’t an English test part of citizenship requirements? If someone can’t read a simple electoral sign or voting paper they should not qualify for citizenship. Let’s make it part of the test.
Really ZA. With everything that’s wrong with this entire affair, that’s where you want to go?
It’s pretty obvious that they were written in Chinese so that the non-Chinese electors wouldn’t have a clue what was written, except for the word ‘Liberal’ in English, of course. Anyone with half a brain might have reasoned that it was a how-to-vote-Liberal message, but the pretence that it was an AEC announcement may have fooled them into thinking it was something ‘legit’. Hence the fraud.
I agree it is obviously a fraud to use the AEC colors and print, and to position the sign right next door to another AEC sign.
Immoral, and unacceptable but does it meet the criteria for the Court of Disputed Returns.
If nothing is done about the dodgy signage, the next state election in Queensland is going to have purple everywhere.
Amazing that PHON hasnt jumped on board with zenphobic claims about election signs only being written in English etc. However that may impact on her new buddy the Treasurer, just as well it’s not Chris Bowen.
If the Federal Court rules against this, it will be anything goes in future election advertising….