{"id":673047,"date":"2026-05-15T17:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673047\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:54:09","slug":"refugees-are-welcome-here-site-could-be-part-of-connected-campaign-to-funnel-votes-to-one-nation-in-victoria-victorian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673047\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Refugees Are Welcome Here\u2019 site could be part of \u2018connected campaign\u2019 to funnel votes to One Nation in Victoria | Victorian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four aspiring political parties seeking to contest the Victorian state election \u2013 including a new website called \u201cRefugees Are Welcome Here\u201d \u2013 could be a part of a \u201cconnected campaign\u201d to funnel preferences to One Nation<\/a> and other conservative parties.<\/p>\n

The website for \u201cRefugees Are Welcome Here\u201d, created on 5 May, said it\u2019s seeking 750 Victorian members to sign up so it can register as a political party in the state.<\/p>\n

The domain is being hosted on the same IP address as the so-called \u201cMuslim Votes Matter\u201d party, the \u201cFree Palestine party\u201d and the \u201cSave the Environment party\u201d \u2013 three other entities seeking registration ahead of the November\u2019s election. Their websites similarly ask for 750 members to sign up, although the Victorian Electoral Commission requires only 500.<\/p>\n

Rightwing provocateur Avi Yemini has claimed credit for the \u201cFree Palestine party\u201d<\/a> and anti-lockdown activist Monica Smit for the \u201cSave the Environment party\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yemini was also the first to publicly mention \u201cMuslim Votes Matter\u201d \u2013 which has used the identical name as an exisiting political advocacy group in a move condemned by the grassroots organisation as an attempt to \u201cmislead\u201d voters<\/a>. In a YouTube video last week, Yemeni said the \u201cperson behind this party\u201d had been inspired by him.<\/p>\n

But analysis of domain records by Guardian Australia suggests the groups are linked. The website for \u201cMuslim Votes Matter\u201d was created two days before \u201cRefugees Are Welcome Here\u201d.<\/p>\n

The aspiring parties also share the same IP address as 10 domains linked to Smit, including two Reignite Democracy websites, a site promoting her biography, another her production business and others connected to her campaigns, including three that promote cash use.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

With the exception of the Reignite Democracy websites, their registrant details have been anonymised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve obviously taken steps to ensure that the details of the people behind these political parties are not publicly available,\u201d said Mark Gregory, an RMIT associate professor in the school of engineering.<\/p>\n

Gregory said it would be \u201chighly unusual\u201d for political parties to \u201cserendipitously all register at the same time and all get their websites at the same time through the one provider\u201d. He believed the sites were created either by a single individual or a contractor.<\/p>\n

Hammond Pearce, a senior lecturer in cybersecurity at UNSW, said while anonymising domain registration had become more common, the use of a shared IP address and the websites\u2019 similar infrastructure, design and wording was akin to \u201cfinding a whole load of political flyers from different campaigns in the same person\u2019s desk drawer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s happening here \u2013 they\u2019re all using the same infrastructure, they\u2019ve all got very similar themes and many of the websites do have cross-linking,\u201d Pearce said. \u201cThere is very strong evidence that there\u2019s a connected campaign going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avi Yemini said the new entities each tapped into \u2018different voting blocs\u2019 on the left but would direct preferences \u2018to One Nation and other conservatives\u2019. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/EPA<\/p>\n

Rahat Masood, a senior lecturer at UNSW\u2019s school of computer science and engineering, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShared hosting can occur innocently. But when multiple newly registered political entities appear on the same infrastructure, within a very short timeframe, it raises legitimate questions about whether these groups are more operationally connected than they publicly appear,\u201d Masood said.<\/p>\n

Smit would not confirm whether she had created the \u201cRefugees Are Welcome Here\u201d website or where it would direct its preferences, saying: \u201cthat party has not yet been launched, so I have no comment on that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked whether she was behind all four aspiring parties, she said: \u201cNo. The registered officers are responsible for their own parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smit said each entity\u2019s registered officer would be responsible for its preference arrangements, should they succeed in registering as political parties, but that \u201cSave the Environment\u201d would \u201clikely preference One Nation in most regions\u201d. She said she would also take into consideration individual candidates across the state.<\/p>\n

\u2018Harvesting\u2019 votes<\/p>\n

Yemeni has said in social media videos that the entities each tapped into \u201cdifferent voting blocs\u201d on the left but would ultimately direct their preferences \u201cto One Nation and other conservatives\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got Save the Environment harvesting the climate vote. We\u2019ve got Free Palestine targeting the hate vote and now Muslim Votes Matter to capture this growing migrant group that\u2019s been cynically mobilised to vote against us,\u201d he said in last week\u2019s video.<\/p>\n

This is possible due to Victoria\u2019s upper house being the only Australian house of parliament still using the group voting ticket (GVT) system<\/a>. Under GVTs, voters are only able to choose one party above the line on the ballot paper, with their preferences then allocated by the party if it\u2019s knocked out during counting.<\/p>\n

Political analyst Kevin Bonham said GVTs were \u201cnot an adequately democratic system\u201d as they allow backroom preference deals between parties and so-called preference whisperers to flourish, resulting in the election of candidates with \u201cno real voter support\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bonham said the latest four aspiring political parties were among the more \u201cblatant examples\u201d he\u2019s seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not clear whether they\u2019re doing it seriously, with intent to actually run, or whether they\u2019re just trying to engage in a stunt and make a point against group voting tickets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Smit said the four parties were \u201chelping to highlight the obvious flaws\u201d of GVTs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the registered officers involved share the view that Victoria\u2019s GVT system should be abolished. Preferences should be determined by voters themselves, not by backroom deals between parties,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One response has been to register another political party to prevent Yemeni\u2019s \u201cFree Palestine party\u201d from claiming the name. As of Friday morning, the \u201cFree Palestine Party Australia\u201d has secured 436 registrations and is hoping to register before Yemeni\u2019s group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get over 500 registrations before Yemeni, then he will be unable to use the name \u2018Free Palestine party\u2019 or any similar name for any party he wishes to register,\u201d a call for final members read.<\/p>\n

The Coalition, the Greens, One Nation and two parliamentary inquiries \u2013 chaired by Labor MPs \u2013 have all called for GVTs to be scrapped. The Allan government is yet to respond to the latest inquiry but the Victorian Electoral Commission has said Labor has until August to legislate changes in time for the election.<\/p>\n

Liberal MP Chris Crewther \u2013 the deputy chair of an inquiry that called on the government to do so \u201cas soon as possible\u201d \u2013 said Yemini\u2019s antics demonstrate \u201chow crazy the current system is and how easily it can be manipulated\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur laws indeed permit anyone to market one thing to voters and deliver another thing through the preference machinery,\u201d Crewther told parliament on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither such parties must be accepted \u2026 or ideally, the system should be abolished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four aspiring political parties seeking to contest the Victorian state election \u2013 including a new website called \u201cRefugees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-673047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}