Threats, ‘skulduggery’ and neo-Nazis prompt AEC warning about voting booths

A barrage of complaints about threatening and aggressive behaviour at polling booths has fuelled tension in Australia’s most hotly contested electorates and prompted the electoral commission to warn candidates in marginal seats that such behaviour would discourage voters.

The latest incidents include a Labor volunteer telling opponents to “go back to where you came from” in south-west Sydney and police investigating neo-Nazis imitating Liberal Party volunteers at polling booths in inner Melbourne.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was also forced to condemn homophobic insults after the father of a Labor MP was overheard antagonising opponents, while Labor has reported Liberal Party volunteers linked to a separatist Christian sect for intimidatory behaviour.

Campaigners across the political spectrum are reporting aggression at voting locations as a record number of Australians vote early this year, with more than 4 million people having already cast their ballot as of Tuesday. Tensions have been most pronounced in marginal seats where stakes are highest, and in city suburbs where social cohesion has frayed with rising antisemitism and Islamophobia following the war in Gaza.

The latest example from western Sydney’s hotly contested seats include a Labor volunteer, dressed in red and handing out flyers for Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, arguing loudly with other campaigners before saying that “whoever doesn’t like it, can pack your bags and go” in a video uploaded on social media.

In the interaction, which was filmed without the volunteer’s consent and does not show the full exchange, the man repeats the line before saying: “Go back to where you came from if you don’t like Australia. If you don’t like the way of the government, you can pack your bags and go. You come here to run away from your country for a better life.”

Burke has distanced himself from the volunteer and said he had asked him not to return. “I have zero tolerance for that sort of language. I was made aware of the comments at the end of the day, and I asked the volunteer not to return to pre-poll,” he said.

Attempts to contact the volunteer via his daughter, a local councillor, and Burke’s campaign, were unsuccessful.

The polling booth at the Bankstown Senior Citizens Centre has been the centre of various claims and counterclaims made by volunteers, some of whom described it as a “chaotic” spot to vote. One campaign organiser, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was the “worst polling booth I had ever come across” and that he had seen “skulduggery of the highest order” there.

As independent campaigners seek to activate Muslim voters against the government over its position on Gaza, tensions have also flared in the northern Melbourne seat of Wills, where a signage dispute involved a Labor staffer calling police after a heated altercation with a Muslim Votes Matter volunteer campaigning against the ALP’s Peter Khalil.

The Australian Electoral Commission’s Victorian state manager wrote to Wills candidates warning that the commission had received “several complaints about behaviour … variously described as unpleasant, negative and aggressive.

“When AEC staff observe poor behaviour, we will call for calm in the first instance. If the behaviour continues, and if it is considered necessary, we will call the police,” they said.

Separately, in inner-east Melbourne, police are investigating after neo-Nazis impersonating Liberal Party campaigners turned up to a pre-poll booth to hand out antisemitic pamphlets imitating the party’s branding.

A member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network, Joel Davis, appeared at the Kooyong pre-polling booth on Wednesday wearing a blue T-shirt imitating Liberal Party branding, flanked by two other men in costume beards and fake Orthodox Jewish clothing.

Some Jewish people have said they no longer feel safe going out to vote as antisemitic flyers have circulated in electorates, including Goldstein and Macnamara, in far-right attempts to disrupt the election campaign. The pamphlets have also been seen in Queensland.

Joel Davis (right), of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network, at a Kooyong pre-polling centre on Wednesday.

In Melbourne, police said on Thursday that they were investigating “four males with antisemitic signage and pamphlets” at the Kooyong polling station.

The AEC, which is also “reviewing the flyers”, said police were monitoring polling centres across the country after incidents of aggression and intimidation.

Victoria Police are also investigating an incident at a pre-polling booth in Pakenham on Thursday, caught on video, in which a man is seen to kick and punch a volunteer wearing a Trumpet of Patriots t-shirt.

“We were built on multiculturalism… these ads aren’t what Australia is about,” the man can be heard saying.

The man didn’t clarify what ads he meant, though in recent weeks, anti-immigration Trumpet of Patriots ads have run in several major newspapers, including this masthead.

“I can f---in’ sue you! And I will sue you, ’cos I’ve got all these witnesses,” the man who did the kicking continues. “You just abused me verbally.”

“Don’t worry about the cops, I’m fine,” the volunteer targeted said off-camera. Later, party leader Suellen Wrightson said he was “currently receiving medical support”.

Aggressive and inappropriate behaviour has also been reported in marginal seats that could be crucial to whether Labor or the Coalition forms government.

A screengrab taken from footage of the incident in Pakenham on Thursday.

In the seat of Bennelong, one of the most marginal, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg on Thursday said he had been targeted with sexualised remarks by a Labor volunteer, a day after Labor MP Jerome Laxale apologised on behalf of his father, who made homophobic comments towards a Liberal Party volunteer while on the hustings.

Albanese bristled when he was asked whether he condemned the comments on Thursday. “People’s families should be kept out of it,” Albanese said. “It’s beneath you to ask whether I support homophobic comments. Because of course I don’t ... And frankly, it’s offensive even suggesting it.”

Albanese instead pointed to reports about campaigning for the Liberal Party by members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren, which has sent hundreds of members to pre-polling booths in marginal seats, including Bennelong, while instructing them to keep secret that they were members of the controversial religion.

A Labor campaign source said the volunteers had intimidated Hawke MP Sam Rae in Melbourne, and that the party had reported the incident to the Australian Federal Police. The complaint, seen by this masthead, said Liberal Party volunteers linked to the religious group had been “getting up close and in Sam’s face [and] personal space, yelling, being physically intimidating and filming him”. The AFP was contacted for comment.

A spokesperson from NSW Police said there had been “recent examples of malicious damage and people being abusive to others at a number of polling centres in NSW due to heightened emotions ahead of the federal election”.

AEC Commissioner Jeff Pope said most pre-poll interactions had been cordial. “While there is a lot of media coverage of incidents occurring, reports of unsavoury behaviour are relatively limited,” he said.

But he warned against the reported instances of aggression, intimidation and potential violence. “In some areas, the AEC has written to candidates and branches of registered political parties to alert them to the reports being received and to remind everyone of the right for voters to have a comfortable voting experience,” he said.

“We do have close relationships with local police forces around the country who are closely monitoring activities.”

With Clay Lucas

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