Sacked Greens candidate John Meyer refers party to ATO, CCC

The Greens have been accused of unethical fundraising and using JobKeeper for campaigning in a messy public spat following the dumping of a candidate for an inner Brisbane seat. But the party has hit back against the “disgruntled disendorsed” candidate.

A dumped Greens candidate has let loose on his former party, accusing them of using JobKeeper payments to fund campaigning and of running illegal fundraisers in a messy public spat.

But the Greens have hit back, accusing him of trying to tear down his old party just two months before the state poll, after he was disendorsed for threatening behaviour towards women.

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The nature of the alleged threatening behaviour by former Clayfield candidate John Mayer was not disclosed, but he vigorously denies any wrongdoing.

Dumped Greens candidate for Clayfield John Meyer.

The letter, seen by The Courier-Mail, makes several demands around the running of his campaign, including that funding be increased and that $2500 raised by a allegedly questionable raffle be returned.

Giving a Monday deadline, he wrote that he reserved the right to take issues further under party rules and state and federal law if his demands weren‘t met.

Mr Meyer told The Courier-Mail he had since written to the Office of Gaming and Liquor over the raffle, which he believed could be won by people under 18 and Greens office bearers.

He said he had also written to the Australian Taxation Office raising concerns that JobKeeper payments were financing state campaigns and to the Crime and Corruption Commission on internal governance issues.

“I brought to attention some concerns over possible ethical and legal breaches relating to the running of raffles, potentially in breach of Liquor and Gaming rules and around the party’s use of JobKeeper,” Mr Meyer said.

Greens convener Penny Allman-Payne said Mr Meyer was disendorsed because he threatened to make “baseless, unfounded allegations public” if his demands for more resources weren’t met.

“We take a dim view of spurious accusations made by disgruntled disendorsed political candidates in the media,” she said.

“The party won’t be threatened, but it’s sad to see him try so hard to tear down a party and a movement just because he didn’t get what he wanted.

“John’s allegations regarding JobKeeper and budget allocations are at best based on his own misunderstanding of budgeting and a complicated Federal scheme, and at worst a deliberate attempt to derail the Party’s most successful state campaign ever.”

She said Mr Meyer’s attempts to use his allegation to garner more resources and his refusal to discuss the matter “make his claims look less like whistleblowing and more like a transparent attempt at intimidation”.

Mr Meyer said he had made no threats, nor intimidated any woman, and considered the allegations a smear.