LIAR LIAR MAJOR PARTIES ON FIRE: Liberal and Labor the unlawful lawmakers

What happens when the two biggest parties in Australian politics decide to write the rules in their own favour - and get caught? 

Liberal and Labor strategised and passed donation laws that capped donations for independent's and minor parties at just $1,084 per year, while leaving themselves free to rake in unlimited funds. 

The High Court has now ruled those laws unconstitutional. They should never have existed in the first place. 

Just how far Labor and Liberal will go includes misleading narrative on the Nepean by-election.

And why is there a by-election? Because an elected Liberal member refused to keep working in a toxic environment. 

If you thought democracy was supposed to protect you, think again.

A Conversation with Greg Cheesman

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

You're listening to the Cheryl Lacey Show where curiosity meets courage, and there's a lot of courage required if you're wanting to get into politics these days. We've had the attempted assassination, the third one of President Donald Trump, and all I can say really, other than thank God he's alive, thank God we haven't had any assassination attempts here in Australia. And given that elections are hitting us hard and fast with a number of violations around the country, another one coming up this weekend in Nepean in Victoria, they are starting to have quite an impact on our predictions of future elections coming up. We have our November election in Victoria and also our federal election coming up soon after. And the growth of One Nation in particular is having a major impact on the way we do see elections taking place in the future. So it's good to have Greg Cheesman, uh One Nation Party member on the line to talk about that very issue with us this morning. Welcome to the show, Greg.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Cheryl, good morning and good morning, dear listeners. It's absolutely fantastic to be back after, can I say far too long?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

It has been far too long. Well I had you on the show for a while there and then we took a bit of a break. So it is fantastic to have you back. And I remember last time I was trying to get you to become an independent, but of course that's not to be. However, having said that, your following is growing and growing. I've noticed on Facebook just the number of followers you have, and it's all credit to you, the work that's required, particularly when you have a very low budget and you're up against the two major parties who have very big budgets. How do you manage that?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Well, it's we are a grassroots party and everything we do, it's it's all volunteer-based, it's all at our own cost. No one's getting paid for it. Uh, we will be doing fundraising for individual campaigns and the like, but as opposed to the so-called major parties or the legacy parties who have multimillion dollar donations from their um their their benefactors and the like, uh nominated entities. Uh, we don't have that, so we are doing everything we can off our own back.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

It's not fair and reasonable to start with, is it, when it's a situation just like that. You've got volunteers, you've got uh you're putting hands in your own pocket, you're relying on friends and networks to assist you, which certainly granted the political parties, the two major parties started that way, but they have such a monopoly. I understand that they, given the the number of votes that they usually get because of the preferences, all the money that they pay out on an election campaign, they get back from the government so that they can reinvest next time round. But if you don't have a high intake of votes, you lose the money you've contributed to your own campaign. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

This is a really interesting point, and I'm sure your listeners will be fascinated to learn that when a political party or candidate receives more than four percent of a primary vote in talking in a lower house in Victoria specifically, a little different in the upper house, they will receive six dollars thirty, so six dollars and thirty cents for every vote, every primary vote that candidate gets above the four percent threshold. So when you work that out, that turns into millions of dollars that comes from the Victorian taxpayer. It's not the government's money, it's yours and mine and everyone listening, it's our money that goes to pay political parties. It's a bit of a reward for doing a good job, if you like. But what we've seen in 2018 and the 2022 elections, Liberal and Labour got together and they passed laws to restrict political donations. And that meant that minor parties and independents could not receive more than $1,084 per calendar year from any entity. Now, what's an entity? It's a company or a person. So if you, Cheryl, wanted to donate to my campaign, and let's say you wanted to be very generous and say I'd like to donate $10,000 to Greg's campaign, you would not be allowed to do that. But if you were the Labour Party, you could receive unlimited funds from your nominated entity, which happens to be the Union Movement, the ACTU, and likewise the Liberal Party through the Cormac Foundation, which was set up after the sale of 3XY to manage those funds. So you're right, it's not equal. But the interesting thing, Wednesday last week, the High Court of Australia determined that those laws are unconstitutional and should never have been put in place. So here we have a situation where the two legacy parties have gotten together to stifle the uh minor parties and independence illegally.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Oh, Greg, music to my ears, to be honest. Music to my ears, it's it it's another one of those monopolies where the two major parties will do all things possible to look after each other to prevent anything else from happening. Now, when you think about that, the way the conversations go about you know opposition and who's in power and so on and so forth, you would swear they were enemies. What is clearly the case, they are not enemies. Their enemies are anybody who is wanting to do something different to what they control and own. So I have to be careful here, but if you're prepared to be unlawful in your approach to retain power, even if it's with your opposition, and particularly in hand in hand with your opposition or your alleged opposition, you're protecting something other than the possibility of being in government.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

I think what it does, Cheryl, it raises questions. Now it raises questions of character and competency. Now, let's just assume, give them all the benefit of the doubt that they acted in a way that they thought was looking after the interests of Victorians and passed a law with let's say in inverted commons good intentions and I say that rather sarcastically, but let's assume, let's give them the benefit of the doubt for the minute. If they're passing laws that are unconstitutional in this instance, what are they doing with the rest of the laws that they are passing? And how many other laws are we being held to and judged by that are actually unconstitutional? I mean, do they actually know the law?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Well, the truth is is that they don't.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

That's right. And who's there to pull it up? Well, indeed two independent candidates that took this to the High Court, and thank goodness they did, to be able to challenge it. Otherwise this would continue.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Well, when we're talking about unconstitutional, that's extremely important because we have the Commonwealth Constitution, then we have each of the states and territories with theirs. So this goes to the what's intended for this country that's not happening at all. You raise a very, very good point. What does that mean for our election process? Again back to President Trump. He has said from the outset that his elect the election was stolen. And I agree with him. I've been through that myself on a much smaller scale, obviously, but I've experienced the roarting of elections. Is it fair to say that this is possible and will occur again or could occur again because we've already had the red shirts situation with the Labor Party. We've got an unconstitutional decision-making process within Parliament, not just the government, but the opposition as well. And we've seen the opposition working hard at getting rid of Pauline Hansen in the past by having her jailed, and again that was not lawful. So they're it seems as though they're willing to do any and all things possible, including not following any laws or not knowing them to start with, as you pointed out, but to keep control.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Are there questions around elections that have happened in the past? Absolutely there are. We operate in Victoria, and I say we, Victorians are are governed by a very secretive government right now. Uh they make freedom of information very difficult to obtain. They will do anything to not disclose certain details, and there's there's been a lot of instances with that, and followers of mine on social media will learn in the coming weeks some more about that, and I won't give too much away just yet, but uh certain electoral irregularities, let's say, which used to be reported many years ago, have ceased, and that raises many, many questions when you start joining certain dots.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

So this leads to it's it's not just unlawful, we're talking about misinformation, and I understand with the campaign in Napian coming up, I believe it's this Saturday, the 2nd of May, there are already campaigns out against One Nation, and literally uh they're not telling the truth, they're lies that are being up on poster boards and all sorts of things to convince voters that One Nation is dishonest.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Well, this is this is a really disappointing development, and early voting has been going since Wednesday of last week, so about ten days of early voting, and you're right, election day will be this Saturday in the Matin area. This is a by-election that's been brought about by the Liberal Party's own deputy leader, Sam Gross, who was in his first term of of office, and he decided earlier this year, with only a few months to go, knowing there's a state election in November, that his party was so toxic that he could not stay on board any longer. He resigned, initially said he would not force a by-election and would stay in the parliament, but then within a week changed his mind and forced a by-election on the good people of Napian. Now, why is this an issue? This is an issue because it now cost the Victorian taxpayer two million dollars for this man to go and look for another job where he could have fulfilled his duties that he said he would when he stood for election in the first place in 2022 and continued on. No, he's forced a two million dollar buy election on the people of the area who will then go to the polls on Saturday, if they haven't done early voting, to only then go back to the polls at the end of November this year, a mere six and a half months later. You know, it it blows my mind. Now, what we've seen is you're right, total misinformation. Labor aren't running in this by-election, so the Liberals need an enemy. They feel obviously feel under threat from the rise of one nation and are trying to twist the big policy, the big local policy that is going to make a difference to the area. The Rosebud Hospital needs redevelopment. It's dilapidated, it needs to be rebuilt effectively. The Liberals are saying they're going to commit $380 million of your money, your tax money, of which we don't have because we're about $200 billion in debt. So where are they going to get this money from? They won't be able to fund it. One nation have come up with an idea that the Liberals have used previously on a number of occasions, mind you, of a public-private partnership for the infrastructure. Not to run it, but just to get the infrastructure up and running. So how that works, um, just if I can if I can run you through that, is a developer would come up with the money, they'd stump up the money up front, and then there would be a repayment through the hiring out of consulting rooms, aged care, and early learning centres or child care, which would be part of the development. So it's good for the people to pay in because it's not coming out of the uh the tax take, and there's something in it for the developer ongoing where they'll make an income and make the investment worthwhile. Now, the Liberals have done this previously to redevelop the Royal Women's Hospital, the Peter McKellen Cancer Center, the Bendigo Hospital, the Ballarat Base Hospital, have all been done with an infrastructure PPP. It's exactly what one nation is proposing. The Liberal Party are turning around and forgetting the two P's, the public and the partnership, and are saying one nation is going to privatize the Rosebud Hospital, which is completely false.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

It's just nonsense, isn't it? Now, just before we wrap up, you've got this issue happening down at Napian, but you've also got the state issue now as well, and that election is coming up uh later on in the year. And the big announcement yesterday, very quickly, Greg, the $1 billion roads maintenance blitz, apparently to repair 200,000 potholes. Now, I was talking to a friend yesterday and they were saying, I hope Victoria wakes up to this scam. Because the scam essentially being that if we cut the maintenance budget for a couple of years, we get credit for saving money, and then when the election comes up, they can announce the spending of that same money just before the election, and everyone will clap hands and say, Well done, they're about to repair the roads. So this is a play on finance and a play on need that should have already uh been, you know, these 200,000 potholes repaired a decade ago.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

I'm not sure anyone could accuse the Labor government of saving money, but I get where you're coming from. Create a problem and then just in time for the election, solve the problem. This is totally of Labor's doing it's an absolute disgrace. Hopefully the Victorian people are smart enough to see through it. Any government that turns around on the eve of an election and says, We are going to do this, like fixed roads, well, what have you been doing throughout your term? That's your job. You've neglected your duties, you've treated the Victorian people like mugs, and at the last minute turn around and say, give us another go and we'll do what we should have done last time. No, I think this government's done.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Look, I think this is the case for every political party, or even an a local member who gets in, the election campaign should be, here's my success story, here's what I've achieved for you, let me do more. And uh you're exactly right, we do need change, but we certainly need change in a major way that I don't think the Australia is perhaps uh really curious enough about to ensure that uh we get rid of this political party fiasco that we have and these two major parties in particular who are controlling the way Australians live. Greg, great to have you on the show. Yes, I promise I'll get you back sooner, and particularly with this election getting closer, we need to have more and more honest conversations, and that's what you bring to the show. Thanks very much for being on.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Thank you, Cheryl. It's very exciting. The run to November, we're looking forward to it, and I can't wait to be back on next time.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Good on you. Talk to you soon, God bless. You're on uh the Cheryl Lacey Show, where curiosity meets courage. We just had Greg Cheesman discussing the Napian by-election and the coming state election here in Victoria, and the way in which our political parties, believe it or not, play games with our money and our minds.