One Nation candidate told to use personal bank account for donations

One Nation’s first big test in Victorian politics – the Nepean byelection – may have put the fast-rising party in breach of Victoria’s electoral laws, after state president Warren Pickering advised candidate Darren Hercus to use a personal bank account to accept campaign donations.

Two former One Nation branch members, who quit the party due their concerns about its handling of donations and other issues relating to Hercus’ campaign, say that Pickering told a February 22 meeting of the party’s Nepean committee it was standard practice for One Nation candidates to use personal accounts to manage campaign finance.

If acted upon, this contravenes the strict campaign finance provisions within Victoria’s Electoral Act which, prior to Tuesday’s dramatic intervention by the High Court, carried penalties of 10 years in jail for anyone found to have intentionally circumvented its requirements.

One of these requirements was for all campaign donations to be deposited into a state campaign account registered with and audited by the Victorian Electoral Commission. This is one of the key transparency measures the Allan government is determined to reinstate following the High Court’s decision to strike out the section of the Act which regulates election expenditure and political donations.

Premier Jacinta Allan has declared that any changes to the law will retrospectively apply from the date of the High Court decision.

Hercus told The Age he did not have a personal account to manage political expenses and was putting most of his campaign costs on his Mastercard. He said he had no knowledge of how his campaign donations were being managed.

“I don’t see anything. I believe they have got an account for Victoria, but I don’t have any details,” he said.

Pauline Hanson flew into Melbourne on Friday to campaign with Hercus. The pair met supporters for drinks in Rosebud and were due to campaign together on Saturday before the May 2 byelection.

The two former One Nation members, who spoke to this masthead on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional reprisals, joined the party at the start of the year and attended the inaugural meeting of the Flinders branch on the Mornington Peninsula. They subsequently joined a small committee formed to manage the campaign for the Nepean byelection that was forced by former Liberal MP Sam Groth’s abrupt retirement from the seat.

One of the former members, who is also a lapsed Liberal Party member, has sworn two statutory declarations recounting their experiences. “I was in One Nation for six weeks,” they told this masthead. “That is how long I lasted. I just couldn’t stomach it any more.”

According to the two former members, Hercus was selected by Pickering on February 12 as the Nepean candidate without input from the committee or branch members. Hercus, a 55-year-old owner of a fabrication company in Safety Beach, says he was inspired to nominate as a candidate after watching a screening of A Super Progressive Movie, Hanson’s animated parody of woke culture.

On February 22, the seven members of the Nepean committee met with Hercus to start planning his campaign, which was publicly announced two days earlier. The two former members recount that when they raised the issue of how to accept political donations, Hercus told them that Pickering had advised him to set up a personal bank account for this purpose.

When the legality of this advice was questioned by committee members, Hercus called Pickering and put him on speakerphone.

“I asked Warren to provide the correct banking details for One Nation for fund and donation deposits,” one former member says in a sworn statement.

“Warren then told the assembled committee that Darren Hercus should use his personal bank account, as that is what all candidates do, and it would be reconciled at a later date.

“Warren assured Darren that was the system he used for donations and fundraisers. Both I and another member voiced our concerns and insisted on a correct bank account. This was brushed off by Warren, who then redirected to another topic of conversation.”

This is consistent with the recollections of the second former committee member.

“Warren said categorically to set up an account in your name, keep all the receipts and don’t use it for anything else,” they said. “We all said that just doesn’t seem right.

“Warren said ‘look, there are about 150 seats in Victoria, we can’t have One Nation separate accounts for all of them, it is too messy and difficult. We all run our campaign money through our own accounts and keep receipts. We all do it. I do it. That is just how we do things’.”

Once Pickering hung up from the call, several committee members warned Hercus against using a personal account to manage political donations.

Hercus on Friday said he could not recall what was said the meeting. “We’re a young party and we discuss things,” he said. “Sometimes they are the wrong thing to do and we don’t do it. We are doing the right thing as much as we can.”

This masthead provided detailed questions to Pickering about what was said at the meeting and how political donations are being managed by One Nation for the Nepean byelection. He did not respond.

Both of the former committee members quit the party within days of the meeting. A third committee member who attended the meeting has also quit. Neither of the former party members who spoke to this masthead have direct knowledge of which accounts One Nation is using to accept political donations for Hercus or spend money on his campaign.

Anthony Whealy, KC, the chair of the Centre for Public Integrity, said the proper use of state campaign accounts was essential to Victoria’s electoral integrity.

“Campaign accounts matter because they create a clear audit trail for election money,” he said.

“Voters much be able to know who is funding campaigns and why. Without this knowledge, voters are in the dark and democratic principles are thoroughly vanquished.”

The Victorian Electoral Act, prior to the High Court’s decision handed down on Wednesday, contained extensive regulations about the use of state campaign accounts.

The provisions effectively lapsed after the High Court found separate arrangements in the laws governing nominated entities – legacy funds used by Labor, the Liberals and the National Party to help pay for election campaigns – gave a significant advantage to the major parties and were unconstitutional.

The court, in its remedy, put a red line through nearly 80 pages of the state’s electoral law, prompting Allan to warn Victoria was now exposed to “dark money in politics”, with no limits, oversight or disclosure requirements for political donations.

All previous disclosures to the Victorian Electoral Commission about campaign financing have now been removed from online.

“As the High Court of Australia has declared that Part 12 of the Electoral Act 2002 is invalid…the VEC no longer has a mechanism to make political funding payments, take compliance actions related to Part 12 or to regulate or publish political donations,” a VEC spokesman said.

“We are currently working to provide up-to-date information about the rules and how they apply to all participants. We now await the government’s announced legislative response.”

The opposition has pledged to work with the government to reinstate campaign finance controls before the November state election.

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