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August 15, 2026 \u2014 7:00pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Comedian Dave Hughes is taking his anti-Labor rants from social media to the party faithful and will appear alongside Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson at the Liberals\u2019 Western Victoria Region campaign launch in Geelong on Sunday.<\/p>\n Hughes, who has become a prominent and prolific critic<\/a> of the Victorian government, the federal government, corruption in the building industry<\/a> and proposed changes to the tax system, among many other gripes, maintains he does not have political ambitions and is not being paid for his involvement in the Liberal launch, but he is backing Wilson in the November state election.<\/p>\n His celebrity appearance at Sunday\u2019s campaign launch alongside Wilson is the latest step in his political evolution. His face even appears on the invitation to the event alongside Wilson\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more I see about what\u2019s been going on here [in Victoria] over the last decade or longer, it just can\u2019t go on, and I think the Liberals are our best bet right now and to get in there and just stop the f—ing corruption, basically,\u201d Hughes told The Age.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s what I want. I\u2019m not joining the Liberals, I\u2019m not being a member of the Liberal Party.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are accusing me of taking money. I\u2019m not taking a cent. I\u2019m deliberately not taking a cent for any of this. I\u2019ve had people, business people, who are sick to death of what\u2019s happening say, \u2018I\u2019ll back you, I\u2019ll finance you.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI say, \u2018I don\u2019t need the money. I don\u2019t want the money.\u2019 I don\u2019t want to owe any vested interests favours. I just want the corruption to stop, I want the waste to stop, so I\u2019m trying to help. That\u2019s all I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Hughes said an eventual tilt at a seat didn\u2019t interest him.<\/p>\n \u201cI really don\u2019t want to run for politics,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go to Canberra. I don\u2019t want to go to f—ing Spring Street. I don\u2019t want to sit in there in those endless f—ing gab fests that they do, but I just want corruption to stop.<\/p>\n \u201cI want all levels of politics to realise you haven\u2019t won Powerball because you\u2019ve got elected, you haven\u2019t won Powerball because you\u2019re in the public service. You are actually spending the money \u2013 which has been earned by honest people who have not circumvented the taxation system and have decided to pay their fair share of tax \u2013 and you have an obligation to honour their hard work by not wasting their money.\u201d<\/p>\n The Liberals have eagerly embraced Hughes\u2019 emergence as a Labor critic and vocal warrior against wasteful government spending. Federal Liberal leader Angus Taylor met up with Hughes for coffee in Melbourne in July, and Hughes met Wilson about six weeks ago as his social media missives started to gain mainstream attention.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI\u2019m happy to meet up with people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sunday is going to be a busy day for Hughes. He will arrive back in Melbourne in the morning after a stand-up gig for his Cooked show in Cowra on Saturday night and plans to attend the first half of the Carlton versus Western Bulldogs game at Marvel Stadium, before driving to Geelong to the Liberal launch and \u201chopefully, you know, contribute to getting a change of government in Victoria\u201d.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d9591c68817ad319420dcdeccd131a9def61c8f9.jpeg\")
Comedian and radio host Dave Hughes has been making headlines for his vocal, viral criticisms of the Albanese government\u2019s tax and negative gearing reforms.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a829134b832424433be94413f06ccbf691cf2114.jpeg\")
Dave Hughes will appear alongside Jess Wilson at Sunday\u2019s western region campaign launch.<\/p>\n![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783228943_30_c6d7f8ceea7b421a6d84c0387ea0dd18e6215a89.jpeg\")
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Fiona Byrne<\/a> is the CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 15, 2026 \u2014 7:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-856139","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\/856139","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=856139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}