Media Release

Integrity, not ‘The Win’ needs to be the cherished prize

Politicians in Victoria need to restore trust and build integrity following the revelations of electoral fraud in addition to a myriad of broken social policy commitments by the governing Labor Party, according to the Australian Christian Lobby, a non-party partisan lobby group.

“The revelations that in the lead up to the 2014 election, newly recruited Labor Party election campaign workers were partly paid by the Victorian Parliament, in a scheme designed to exploit the public purse, is a disheartening development,” ACL Victorian director, Dan Flynn said.

“For 21 Labor MPs to be signing false timesheets for campaign organisers, asserting they were electorate officers is alarming. Eleven of these MPs are still in the Victorian parliament, four are Ministers.

“This has occurred against the backdrop of the Labor Party misleading voters in the lead up to the 2014 election.”

During the closing days of the 2014 Victorian election campaign, in response to an ACL election questionnaire, Labor stated that it did not support euthanasia legislation or supervised injecting rooms.

“Yet, last year the Government advocated vigorously and passed euthanasia law for which it had no electoral mandate,” Mr Flynn said.

“In addition, and despite a 2014 election assurance, the Labor Government is now preparing legislation for injecting rooms, to be introduced before this year’s election.

“The struggle for voters not to become cynical is unnecessarily burdensome.

“We know we have a substantial problem when our public leaders choose to win using cunning schemes, deceptively funded by taxpayer dollars, and then go on to glibly break election commitments.

“These events will be fresh in the minds of voters as they face the polls again in November.

“We need leaders who will put governing well above winning, men and women of integrity who will not be party to corruption and false promises.

“The voters of Victoria want a fair contest with clear policies so that they are making an informed choice. They want elections that are not influenced by the misappropriation of taxpayer money,” Mr Flynn said.

 

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