{"id":896978,"date":"2026-09-18T21:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896978\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T21:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:24:13","slug":"alleged-underworld-supporters-and-unfounded-health-claims-one-nation-rolls-out-more-victorian-election-candidates-victorian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896978\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged underworld supporters and unfounded health claims: One Nation rolls out more Victorian election candidates | Victorian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Candidates contesting the Victorian state election for One Nation include a former Liberal who has won support from alleged underworld figures, a naturopath who has endorsed Donald Trump\u2019s unfounded claim that paracetamol is linked to autism<\/a> and a former shire councillor who lost his licence for drink-driving.<\/p>\n

Pauline Hanson announced who would be her party\u2019s upper house candidates and Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, at a press conference last month<\/a>. Since then One Nation has used social media to unveil a steady stream of candidates, with 51 of the 88 lower house spots now filled.<\/p>\n

Among them is Michael Piastrino, who launched his campaign on Sunday for the outer-suburban seat of Berwick, held by the Liberal Brad Battin on a 4.7% margin.<\/p>\n

A selfie from Michael Piastrino\u2019s Instagram account that shows Malaki Salesui standing behind him<\/p>\n

The launch was attended by Malaki Salesui, who was convicted in 2021 for his role in an organised car-theft ring.<\/p>\n

Mick Mantzaris commented on photographs of the event on Instagram, writing: \u201cgreat day great people\u201d and \u201ctime for a change\u201d. Mantzaris pleaded guilty in 2012 to possessing testosterone, disclosing restricted information and misleading the office of police integrity. The following year he was targeted in a drive-by shooting. Police described him at the time as \u201can associate of some outlaw motorcycle gang members\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anthony Younan, the nephew of the slain underworld figure Nabil Maghnie, also commented on Piastrino\u2019s Instagram posts, saying he would vote for One Nation<\/a> because of him: \u201cI can\u2019t believe I am going to vote for a red headed woman who hate Arabs. My mother is going to disown me Michael. But I am doing this for you bro!\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Younan\u2019s comment on a Piastrino post<\/p>\n

Piastrino, a hairdresser, ran for the Liberals at the 2022 election. He was forced to apologise<\/a> during that campaign after declaring that Daniel Andrews would be \u201cbrought to justice for the murder of 800 people\u201d under a Liberal government.<\/p>\n

He told the Cranbourne Star News last month<\/a> that he had met Mantzaris and Salesui through church. \u201cI\u2019m not here to judge people,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m here to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources have told Guardian Australia that One Nation has strengthened its candidate vetting process in the lead-up to the November election, with more stringent background checks and lengthy interviews.<\/p>\n

In an interview in June<\/a>, Kelvin Morton, One Nation\u2019s general manager, said the party had also employed technology that did a \u201cvery comprehensive deep dive\u201d into potential candidates\u2019 social media accounts and provided a \u201cthorough assessment\u201d of their characters.<\/p>\n

One Nation also shown a willingness to accept candidates with controversial histories, including Pickering, who this month acknowledged past drug use and drink-driving<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ben Lucas, the party\u2019s candidate for the Liberal-held seat of Narracan, resigned from Baw Baw shire council in 2021 after being convicted of drink-driving and dangerous driving.<\/p>\n

Court records seen by Guardian Australia show he was fined $2,000 and had his licence suspended for two years.<\/p>\n

This month he pleaded guilty to operating a category-one aquatic facility without registering it with the council and was ordered to pay $3,000 in costs.<\/p>\n

Lucas described the charges, which related to the operation of ice baths at his gym, on Facebook as a \u201cstorm in a teacup\u201d that had been \u201cblown out of proportion\u201d. He said they arose from an \u201cadministrative oversight\u201d involving the registration of his business after it moved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I wasn\u2019t involved with One Nation, would this have still been pursued in the same way?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

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Several One Nation candidates have deleted or scrubbed their social media accounts since announcing their candidacies, including Elita Dabrowski, who is contesting Sunbury, a seat Labor fears it could lose.<\/p>\n

A deleted tweet, seen by Guardian Australia, shows Dabrowski backed Trump\u2019s claim that paracetamol is linked to autism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning I watched Trump\u2019s announcement on autism, vaccination schedules & paracetamol,\u201d she wrote on 23 September 2025. \u201cAs a naturopath & functional health practitioner, I felt proud \u2013 it reflects what I see in clinic every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump had said pregnant women should limit their use of the medication, claiming it heightens the risk of autism in children \u2013 an assertion disputed by scientists.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tammy Lindrum, One Nation\u2019s candidate for the historically safe Labor seat of Albert Park, has left a trail of comments on Meta\u2019s Threads about Muslim and First Nations people.<\/p>\n

Comments posted by Tam Lindrum on Threads<\/p>\n

Under the handle \u201cLindrum Legends\u201d and the username Tam Lindrum, she responded in April 2025 to a since-deleted post, saying there was \u201cBlack and Muslim supremacy in Australia\u201d and that \u201cthe Whitman [sic] can\u2019t say anything as they risk being accused of being racist\u201d. Three months later, responding to another post, she wrote: \u201cIf you don\u2019t like Bacon go back to a Muslim country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to a post about plans to make the First Peoples\u2019 Assembly of Victoria<\/a> permanent, she wrote: \u201cFor a minority group I think we are going a little too far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have paid their housing, welfare, education, health, for many years. When does that stop?\u201d<\/p>\n

Among candidates announced this week is Bruce Whalley, who blamed children for the climate crisis in tweet posted during the 2019 student strikes for climate action.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is the fault of kids,\u201d he wrote. \u201cStop asking for a car lift to school. WALK! RIDE a BIKE! or CATCH PUBLIC TRANSPORT. Gosh! Start to be a generation of doers Not talkers and complainers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whalley, who is running in Labor-held Bundoora, also describes himself on Instagram as an \u201cABC2 TV Think Tank tragic\u201d \u2013 despite One Nation\u2019s plan to defund the broadcaster, and its ban on its journalists<\/a> attending the party\u2019s media events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Candidates contesting the Victorian state election for One Nation include a former Liberal who has won support from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-896978","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\/896978","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=896978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}