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Disillusionment with Labor and Liberal is fuelling a surge toward One Nation in Victoria, as crime, infrastructure neglect and party scandals drive voters away from the major parties.

The trend for voters to move away from the major parties to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation outfit is now spreading across Victoria.

This is in light of the conservative party winning four Lower House seats in the recent South Australian election.

Residents in Victoria are not happy about rising violent crime and burglaries, as well as neglected infrastructure.

Liberal Party Crisis Deepens Over Candidate Scandal

Adding to their frustration has been the crisis engulfing the state’s Liberal Party branch, with Member for the Western Metropolitan Region, Moira Deeming, ousted from her position for Dinesh Gourisetty last week.

Gourisetty was subsequently deemed ineligible to stand as a candidate at the November state election due to a character reference he provided for a friend, Kashyap Patel, convicted of grooming and sexually assaulting a child in 2021.

As owner of Indi Hots Catering at Hoppers Crossing in western Melbourne, he was also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and costs over filthy and unsafe food practices in 2019.

That was when Wyndham Council inspectors found rat faeces and bags of open food stored on the floor.

But after a turbulent week for the party, Deeming then secured top spot for her seat unopposed – less than a week after members voted to dump her – following the withdrawal of other candidates from a re-run ballot.

However, significant damage to the Liberal Party’s already-battered reputation has occurred from this latest saga.

A popular conservative MP, Deeming has already been through a drawn-out lawsuit against former party leader John Pesutto, awarded damages after he defamed her as a Nazi sympathiser in the wake of a Let Women Speak rally.

Frustration from Victorians towards the Liberal Party has also grown in recent years as the state’s debt nears $200 billion, but the opposition has not been able to seize power largely due to a range of internal fractures.

Since Pesutto was dumped as leader by his colleagues in December 2024, Brad Battin also lost his leadership after a successful challenge from Jess Wilson in November last year.

Combined with Wyndham City Council Mayor, Preet Singh, temporarily stepping down from his position just a week after being elected, following revelations he, too, provided a character reference for Patel, and many Victorian voters have turned away from the major parties.

Western Melbourne Residents Rally Against Mayor

Christine Cairns, left, says she will never vote for the Liberal Party because she feels it has lost touch with working-class Australians. Picture: Josh Spasaro.

Christine Cairns attended a rally calling for Singh’s resignation at Wyndham Civic Centre on 1 April, saying she will never vote Liberal, with the state election to be held on 28 November.

“I would never vote Liberal. There’s nothing on this earth that would get me to vote Liberal,” she told The Daily Declaration.

“I haven’t voted Labor for years. My votes go to Pauline Hanson and anybody else who says they’re going to help with our problems.

“She speaks for the people, and she doesn’t care. She says, ‘call me what you want, say what you want. This is what I believe in, and this is what I’m going to do.’

“These are the people who we want in power. We don’t want the John Howards who say ‘under me there’ll never be a GST’.

“Six months in, he brought in the GST. All of my friends are going One Nation.”

Former Wyndham City Councillor, Heather Marcus, said she has been inundated with people in western Melbourne approaching her to say they are now One Nation voters.

She added frustrations were high at last week’s rally demanding for Singh to be ousted.

That is because residents were already angered over what they believe has been an unsustainable amount of new immigrants living in Melbourne’s western suburbs, and an increase in violent crime.

Encompassing suburbs such as Werribee, Tarneit, Point Cook and Truganina each with more than 40,000 residents, the population estimate for the City of Wyndham as of June last year was over 347,000, making it one of Australia’s fastest-growing municipalities.

According to Wyndham TV, the municipality recorded a sharp 25.4 per cent increase in crime in 2024, with Werribee (4,489 incidents), Tarneit (3,056), Hoppers Crossing (2,772), Point Cook (2,543) and Truganina (1,544) the most crime-affected suburbs.

Former Wyndham City Councillor, Heather Marcus, said she has been inundated with people in western Melbourne who have told her they are now One Nation voters. Picture: Josh Spasaro.

“Pauline Speaks for the People”: Voters Flock to One Nation

“People are telling me that they’re going to move across to One Nation because Pauline’s got good values,” Marcus said.

“And that’s what people want to hear. Even people in the Indian community phoned me over this last week telling me about Preet.

“And I said ‘oh dear’. But sadly, the councils have changed.

“All our people love this city. They knew this city was going to explode with new residents. They wanted the best for all of our residents, but that’s not what we’re seeing today.

“The people are not happy. Rates, roads and rubbish – that’s what we want them (local bureaucrats) to concentrate on.”

Education and Values at the Heart of Community Anger

Emma O’Brien attended the rally at Wyndham Civic Centre, holding a sign saying “Wyndham City Mayor protects pedophiles”.

Emma O’Brien and Matt Nolton believe the decaying of Judeo-Christian values among our elected representatives is filtering down to our education system. Picture: Josh Spasaro.

She said the decline in Australia’s Judeo-Christian values among our local, state and federal representatives was filtering down to our education system, adding she was worried about our nation’s future.

“Our education system needs an overhaul. We need to start letting children be children,” she said.

“Let them have their innocence. We’ve seen all the stuff with LGBTQI+ coming into schools and even kindergartens.

“That needs to come out of our education system. The government should not be pushing these ideologies onto Australians.

“They should be looking after Aussies, as in our security and our country, the fuel crisis, the economy and food crisis.”

Righteous Outrage

John Weiss, himself a child sexual assault victim, organised the rally to oust Singh last Wednesday.

Sexual assault victim John Weiss said many of our elected politicians are acting in their own self-interest and not for the voters they represent. Picture: Josh Spasaro.

He stood by the attendees who were already frustrated because they believe ratepayer funds have not been adequately spent on local infrastructure.

Also engaging with western Melbourne’s Indian community, Weiss was quick to point out the gathering of concerned residents was not racially-motivated.

“This is a personal subject for me because when I was younger, I was assaulted by an older male,” he said.

“I kept that quiet for a long time through shame, embarrassment and guilt.

“And when I saw this (Singh providing a character reference for a pedophile), I couldn’t stand by idly and say nothing when I saw others who were also outraged.

“There have been suggestions that this is a racial thing or a cultural thing. It’s got nothing to do with that.

“Our roads and infrastructure as a community have fallen behind so far that our population growth as a municipality is greater than what’s been put in place.

“And it’s disappointing because we have potentially elected officials who are acting in their own self-interest rather than for the benefit of their community.”

Weiss also called upon the Victorian Liberal Party to get its act together and support Deeming, who has plenty of support in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

“I think Moira has done nothing wrong to deserve what has been a factional assassination,” he said.

“She stands her ground and respects her values. In this instance, we have an individual (Gourisetty) who in 2019 was convicted of food safety violations, and received $25,000 worth of fines.

“He thinks he’s a fit and proper person, as well as now disclosing that he provided a character reference for a child sex offender.

“Is that the representation that we deserve out in the west?

“There’s a lot of disharmony in the community because the perception is that we have been left behind in the west in favour of some of the other marginal seats that the government is throwing money at.”

On Wednesday last week, Singh announced on social media that Wyndham City Council Deputy Mayor Jasmine Hill would be acting mayor “while this matter is considered”.

“The character reference I provided was given prior to my election. I recognise that, regardless of timing, this has raised legitimate questions about judgment. For that, I am deeply sorry,” Singh said.

And in a statement, Victorian Liberal Party president Philip Davis said Gourisetty had withdrawn last Monday morning, with Victorian Opposition Leader, Wilson, saying he was “not welcome on my team”.

In a letter sent to party executives, Gourisetty said he condemned Patel’s actions and, at the time of providing the reference, was unaware of the details of the case.

“I had no knowledge of the seriousness or full nature of the allegations. I acted in good faith, based on what I knew at the time,” he wrote in the letter.

“I do not raise this to compare circumstances directly, but to highlight that such actions have historically been understood as expressions of personal character assessment, not endorsements of wrongdoing.”

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Featured image: Local residents chanted that they wanted Mayor Preet Singh to resign during a rally at Wyndham Civic Centre on 1 April. Picture: Josh Spasaro.