The Latest Breaking News from Renee Heath

Ryan Smith confirms he would reinstate controversial MP Renee Heath to the party room while John Pesutto urges the party to connect ‘more widely’

There’s a lot of terms you could use to describe the wild 2022 Victorian election campaign, some more publishable than others. Read part two of Crikey’s mammoth wrap-up.

The Victorian state election is on Saturday with polls closing at 6pm AEDT. There are 88 single-member lower house seats with members elected by preferential voting, and 40 upper house seats in eight five-member electorates.

By rights, Victorians marking their ballot papers in the 2022 election this week should be casting judgment on the unprecedented emergency powers enforced during the COVID-19 crisis, while also evaluating the health, education and economic policies put forward in Australia’s second-most-populous state.

In alleged acts of ‘environmental vandalism’, Australia’s coal exporters have been faking data about their ‘clean’ coal, and dumped Liberal upper house candidate in Victoria Renee Heath is calling in the lawyers.

A Nationals candidate due in court on sexual assault allegations and running for the seat of Narracan has died, days out from the Victorian election.

MP Catherine Cumming under police investigation over speech at a protest in which she called for Victoria’s premier to be turned into ‘red mist’

On her blog, Clare Heath-McIvor opens up about the conservative City Builders Church her father leads, amid accusations it is trying to infiltrate the Victorian Liberal Party.

Matthew Guy announces Renee Heath will not sit in party room following newspaper investigation into City Builders Church

The Victorian Liberal Party distances itself from one of its top upper-house candidates over her links to a conservative church, saying she will not sit with the party after the election.

A roadmap outlining how the religious right can "infiltrate" the Liberal Party with "Good Godly" candidates has been linked to a controversial former Liberal candidate and current member of the party's state assembly in Victoria.