One Nation launches Victorian campaign

One Nation has launched its Victorian election campaign, vowing to legalise the personal use of pepper spray, abolish the state’s treaty with Indigenous people, and scrap payroll tax in regional Victoria.

A social media post announcing its policy to “make it cheaper and easier to set up new businesses in Victoria” featured an AI-generated image of a “traditional [sic] fish n’chips” shop. Their latest candidates include a former Liberal who has won support from alleged underworld figures, a naturopath who has endorsed Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that paracetamol is linked to autism and a former shire councillor who lost his licence for drink-driving.

The party is understood to have again prevented reporters from certain media outlets from attending the launch. But it is reported by some news outlets that Northern Metropolitan candidate and creator of the party’s Please Explain Cartoon, Mark Nicholson, vowed at the launch that if One Nation won the election, former premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan would be “in prison by Christmas”.

One Nation has come under fire for practices that could see it collect as much as $633,000 from people who have nominated for the Victorian election, with some potential candidates questioning whether the party is staging a “cash grab”.