An anti-lockdown campaigner has launched a supposedly environmental party in an apparent attempt to game Victoria’s upper house voting system by harvesting preferences for conservatives like One Nation.
Monica Smit, founder of COVID-19 conspiracy group Reignite Democracy, lamented on social media that “freedom” supporters had not acted strategically as she launched her “Save the Environment Party” as a cheap and easy way to influence November’s state election result.
“One of the tactics used in preference whispering is creating minor parties with catchy names so that uneducated voters see a name they like and put a one next to it, and they have no idea that this is actually just harvesting votes for someone else,” Smit said in a social media video on Wednesday.
“We have finally decided to be strategic – if you get what I mean.”
Smit called on her followers to become members of the party so she could register with the Victorian Electoral Commission. Then, she said, she could cut preference deals to help One Nation, former Queensland senator Gerard Rennick’s People First, the Libertarian Party or Family First.
But when contacted by The Age, Smit insisted it was not a front, saying: “It’s a real party, with real policies.”
Victoria is the last jurisdiction in Australia with the controversial group voting system, which allows micro parties to pool preferences from Victorians who vote above the line on the ballot paper for the upper house. Candidates can leapfrog more popular parties through deals that have elected candidates who received less than 1 per cent of the vote.
So-called preference whisperer Glenn Druery is the most prominent player in this system, charging minor and micro parties to arrange sophisticated preference deals.
Before the 2022 election, the Herald Sun obtained leaked video in which Druery privately boasted about creating a sham party to redirect preferences.
“So keeping that story in mind, I have very exciting news. I have started a new minor party in Victoria called Save the Environment Party,” Smit said in her social media video.
“If I can create a group voting ticket to help other conservative parties — like One Nation, or Libertarians, or the Family First Party, or Gerard Rennick’s party — and if my party, Save the Environment Party, doesn’t get any candidates elected, I will be so glad to be able to help those other parties with any votes that I happen to get on election day.”
Yet Smit later maintained the party was genuine.
“We genuinely do care about the environment, and our policies reflect the party’s title,” Smit told The Age. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘harvest’, that sounds manipulative.”
She said she had not had conversations with other parties yet, but that 220 people had joined within 36 hours. She said she intended to register the party next week once it reached the threshold of 500 members, who would be checked by the electoral commission.
The Age last year revealed the government was considering abolishing group voting tickets, widely regarded as undemocratic, in time for the November election. Labor sources unable to speak publicly still expected the government to act.
One Nation state president Warren Pickering confirmed the party had not discussed preferences with Smit, but did not rule it out. He said One Nation would turn to “shenanigans with group voting tickets” later in the year.
The party opposes the group voting system as a subversion of the democratic process, but Pickering said he understood Smit’s rationale to counter Druery if it did remain in place for the election.
The Libertarian Party and Family First have previously worked with Druery. Rennick’s People First party is not registered in Victoria but has signalled its intention to.
Libertarian MP David Limbrick said his party wasn’t aware of Smit’s new project and was focused on its own campaign and candidates. But the party is “open to discussions with anybody”, he said.
“Glenn [Druery] is not working for our party, and it remains to be seen how preferences will work at the next election.”
The Victorian Greens, who usually fare the worst from group voting, have brought their own bill to parliament to abolish the system.
Greens leader Ellen Sandell said the supposedly environmental party was “the epitome of how deeply rigged this system is”.
“If you care about the environment, One Nation is the absolute last place you would want your vote to end up,” Sandell said.
“If Labor doesn’t fix this rigged ‘preference whispering’ system before November, then there’s a real risk our upper house will be controlled by the likes of One Nation and far-right parties.”
In a video on Friday, Smit said the party’s name would attract votes from people that normally wouldn’t support parties she hoped to cut preference deals with.
“That’s just the system that’s available to us. It’s about time we use the system, if you know what I mean.”
She claimed to know of other minor parties being established “with really great names”. “It’s going to be an interesting election,” she said, winking.
The Save the Environment Party website purports its policies include: supporting controlled burns to manage bushfire fuel; opposing brumby culls but backing wild boar hunting; opposing large-scale and foreign-owned renewable energy projects; that national parks should be accessible; and that corporations should be more responsible for plastic waste.
The Animal Justice and Legalise Cannabis parties support abolishing group voting tickets only if accompanied by bigger reform such as replacing the eight regions with a single statewide electorate, as is used in NSW and Western Australia. But changing the structure in this way would require a referendum.
Other minor parties in the upper house oppose the change entirely, arguing it would result in less diversity in the parliament.
The Victorian government is considering the parliament’s electoral matters committee recommendations, including the abolition of group voting, a spokeswoman said.
Druery declined to comment. Family First and People First were contacted on Friday.
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Rachel Eddie is a Victorian state political reporter for The Age. Contact her at rachel.eddie@theage.com.au, rachel.eddie@protonmail.com, or via Signal at @RachelEddie.99Connect via X or email.
