Fringe and conspiracy-promoting figures and groups are once again predicting that this weekend’s NSW election will see them swept into power on a wave of popular support, despite their repeated failed attempts to make an impact at previous elections.
Excluding an attack on LGBTQIA+ protesters near a church earlier this week, the NSW election campaign has been largely unaffected by the efforts of extreme candidates to insert themselves into the action.
Issues like health, infrastructure, cost of living and gambling have dominated policy debate rather than vaccines or LGBTQIA+ rights. Similarly, polling gives most fringe candidates a near-zero chance of being elected. Still, here are the parties and candidates hoping to beat the odds.
One Nation
Perhaps the most mainstream of the fringe groups, One Nation, helmed by Mark Latham, is hoping to increase its parliamentary representation by outflanking the Liberal Party on the right. Beyond the party’s normal suite of promises of cheaper costs and cracking down on crime, Latham has led a crusade against a “woke” education sector, including getting rid of vaccination requirements for teachers and banning “gender fluidity teaching”, which they call “child abuse”.
The party has selected a number of candidates who believe climate change is a myth and oppose vaccination — and some were even recent candidates for the United Australia Party. Polling suggests One Nation could be the only one of the fringe parties that could actually make a splash this weekend.
United Australia Party-affiliated independents
Despite being the home state of national director Craig Kelly, the United Australia Party has shown little effort in contesting the NSW election. The party hasn’t officially registered in NSW, instead endorsing a handful of group independent candidates headed up by Kelly himself.
It’s a pretty low-energy affair, so far. The party’s website doesn’t have any information on the candidates or their policies. Fresh off its federal campaign cash splash, it doesn’t appear it’s run a single Facebook or Google ad, either. Like in the Victorian state election, Clive Palmer seemingly doesn’t have much appetite for spending for political races that don’t directly affect him.
The Informed Medical Options Party
The long-running Informed Medical Options Party has again put up a handful of candidates to contest the election. It’s been a fixture in Australian fringe politics as the original anti-vaccine, anti-fluoride party.
This time, it is running Yosra Alyateem (also known online as Youssra Rose), an influential figure in Sydney’s freedom movement who is focused on anti-LGBTQIA+ matters. She was credited by former anti-Islam activist Shermonn Burgress as crucial to his surprising conversion to Islam.
Liberal Democrats
This libertarian party became increasingly enmeshed with the freedom movement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Led by Liberal dissident John Ruddick, the party wants to drastically cut government capacity while also investigating “vaccine injuries” (while simultaneously falsely claiming that unvaccinated people were at less risk from COVID-19 than those who received the jab).
One of its star candidates is Millie Fontana — a daughter of two lesbians who opposed same-sex marriage— who wants to stop bans of gay conversion therapy and undo vaccine mandates in healthcare. Her candidacy has been promoted by Turning Point Australia leader and conspiracy theorist Joel Jammal.
AUSTRALIAONE-affiliated independents
The most fringe and extreme of all candidates appearing on the ballot papers this weekend belong to AUSTRALIAONE, a “party” (that has never been officially registered) headed up by Riccardo Bosi and David “Guru” Graham.
Bosi is a former Aussie Special Forces commander turned QAnon-promoting conspiracy theorist who has predicted that medical staff and journalists will be executed for their role in the COVID-19 response.
Graham is a concreter who became a freedom movement celebrity during the Convoy to Canberra, who has been charged with intimidation offences after threatening 2GB staff. The party’s policies are an incoherent mishmash of conspiracy claims about election fraud, sovereign citizen ideology, Islamophobia and transphobia.
