Richmond candidate Lucas Moon claims he’s being ‘targeted’ by Yarra council

A massive underdog in his seat ahead of the Victorian state election, one candidate claims he’s nonetheless being targeted by his local council.

A Liberal candidate in Victoria’s November election claims he has been unfairly targeted in his campaigning activities by the Greens-controlled local council.

Lucas Moon, who is running for in the inner-city seat of Richmond, said he has been threatened by the City of Yarra with enforcement notices for handing out election pamphlets outside a popular local market, but claims Labor and other political candidates have been left alone despite campaigning in the same place.

“It's a clear suppression of freedom of speech,” Moon told NCA Newswire on Tuesday.

Liberal candidate for Richmond Lucas Moon said he has been targeted by the Greens-led City of Yarra. Picture: Facebook.

Moon has been campaigning outside Richmond’s Gleadell St market on Saturdays, an action the City of Yarra said it prohibited without a permit due to the location being owned and managed by the local council.

“Only the Liberal candidate is being targeted,” Moon claimed.

While the other candidates were unable to be reached by NCA Newswire, incumbent Labor candidate Richard Wynne was quoted in other media as saying he had been campaigning outside the markets for multiple elections without issue.

“I’ve been campaigning at the Gleadell St market for election after election and nobody has ever asked me to move on,” Mr Wynne is quoted as saying.

Moon, pictured here with volunteers, is hoping to win the seat of Richmond in this month’s state election. Picture: Facebook.

A spokesperson for the City of Yarra said the council had the power to ensure council events were apolitical.

“The City of Yarra has controls (through the local law) in place to ensure that no unauthorised political activity takes place on Council controlled land and that Council events are not politicised,” they told NCA Newswire.

“These controls are in place not to restrict democracy but to ensure Council remains neutral and apolitical,” they said.

While Moon has been prolific on the hustings he is considered an unlikely victor on November 26.

Richmond, which includes the suburbs of Fitzroy, Collingwood, Clifton Hill and Richmond, has a high percentage of renters and young people, and is one of the most progressive pockets of the country.

The federal electorate of Melbourne, which includes many of the same suburbs, was won easily by Greens leader Adam Bandt in May’s election with one of the highest primary votes in the country.

Mr Wynne is retiring at this election, having held the seat since 1999, when the suburbs lacked much of the gentrification that has led to it becoming a retail, dining and creative hub.

His putative successor, Lauren O’Dwyer, came under fire last month for claiming Richmond’s controversial safe injecting room had become a meeting place for aboriginal elders – a claim emphatically rejected by local Wurundjeri senior elder Ron Jones.

Originally published as Richmond candidate Lucas Moon claims he’s being ‘targeted’ by Yarra council