Allison Ritchie taking action over Labor Pembroke election flyers

Independent Pembroke candidate says flyers distributed by the Labor Party about her are full of lies and are “utterly disgraceful”.

Allison Ritchie deputy mayor Clarence City Council who is leading the push on hard waste collection to return. Push for restoration of hard waste services for Clarence City Council. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Pembroke candidate Allison Ritchie is taking legal action over “utterly disgraceful” flyers she says are full of lies.

The flyers distributed to some Eastern Shore homes use the same colours as the independent candidate’s own campaign pamphlets.

On the back in small writing, the flyer says it was authorised by Jarryd Moore, the Labor Party’s acting state secretary.

There is also a QR code and website on the back go to a web page that doesn’t exist.

Mr Moore doubled down on the accusations in the flyer — which Ms Ritchie strongly denied.

“Tasmania’s electoral legislation has an unusual requirement that requires us to deactivate this online material following the issuing of the writs. However, we believe it is important voters have access to information about who is standing to represent them,” Mr Moore said.

Labor’s Luke Edmunds is the incumbent in Pembroke and running for re-election at the May 24 vote.

The flyer included claims that Ms Ritchie, as a member of the Legislative Council, once employed members of her family, lives outside of the electorate of Eastern Shore and has a record of switching political allegiances to suit her own purposes.

Labor's Allison Ritchie flyer (right) using similar font and design to the independent candidate's (left).

Ms Ritchie said the pamphlets were clearly intended to deceive the electorate in “underhanded, disgraceful tactics”.

She said she would be pursuing the matter further and that it was with legal counsel, having complained to the Electoral Commission over an authorisation breach.

Ms Ritchie, who sat as a Labor MLC between 2001-2009, gave credit to Labor Franklin MP Julie Collins for acting promptly to “pull and pulp” the flyers, claiming the pamphlets distributed on Friday had only reached a small amount of homes near the Howrah area.

“Labor members could see how despicable an act it was and had it ceased,” Ms Ritchie said.

“The leaflet was in my colours … it was a sneak tactic trying to make the pamphlet look like mine. That image is subject to copyright.

“It’s absolutely despicable and smacks of desperation.”

The Labor Party did not say how many flyers were letterboxed.

Ms Ritchie said a number of people had called her saying “someone is saying really, really nasty things about you”.

“It’s really disappointing. I’ve never seen a party do something so low and underhanded,” she said.

“Why did they hide that it was from Labor?”

Ms Ritchie said she wanted the Electoral Act to create a stronger offence for mimicking another candidate.

She also said she had written to the Attorney-General on the matter, urging for a review around stronger offences to stop anything similar happening in the future.

Originally published as Allison Ritchie taking action over Labor Pembroke election flyers