CAMPAIGNERS for a minor political party have been accused of hi-jacking the Labor brand at the Polwarth by-election.
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Democratic Labour supporters told voters on by-election day that they could “vote Labor” by handing their first preference to DLP candidate Carmel Kavanagh. Sources have confirmed with The Standard that DLP volunteers used the tactic at polling booths in Terang, Camperdown, Cobden and Colac.
Mrs Kavanagh gained eight per cent of the Polwarth by-election primary vote. The DLP candidate was placed fourth behind Liberal Party candidate Richard Riordan on nearly 50 per cent, Greens candidate Joe Miles on close to 16 per cent and National Party candidate David O’Brien on 12 per cent.
The Labor Party did not field a candidate at the Polwarth by-election, despite gaining 28 per cent of the primary vote at last year’s state election.
Australian Sex Party federal director Douglas Leitch said he and other volunteers for the minor party observed their DLP rivals calling themselves Labor to voters on by-election day.
“I was in Bannockburn and Colac on by-election day and we observed the DLP volunteers using signage with the name ‘Democratic Labor’ and calling themselves the Labor Party,” Mr Leitch said.
“There was clearly an attempt to confuse Labor voters, left-leaning voters, to vote for a very right-wing party. I was a scrutineer on by-election night and there were a number of votes that placed DLP first, Greens second and Sex Party third with the other conservative parties at the bottom.”
DLP state secretary Clara Geoghegan said the Sex Party were threatened by its electoral appeal. Sex Party candidate Meredith Doig gained six per cent of the primary vote, placing fifth behind Mrs Kavanagh.
“The Democratic Labour Party has Labor roots, it is part of our political DNA and we don’t apologise for that,” Ms Geoghegan said.
“The Sex Party can complain all they like but they know that no party has ownership over the concept of ‘Labour’ just as no-one has ownership over the ‘Liberal’ phrase, or the ‘Democratic’ phrase and so on. In fact, the Sex Party does not have ownership over the ‘Sex’ phrase.”
The DLP was formed in 1955 following a split in the ALP over communism.
