Reason coalition: Fiona Patten, Ali Cupper form alliance in Victorian parliament

More details have come to light about Victoria’s new minor party-independent alliance. But one MP says voters have been “betrayed”.

Reason Party leader Fiona Patten and independent Member for Mildura Ali Cupper announce their coalition. Picture: Michael DiFabrizio

Member for Mildura Ali Cupper says she will listen to the community before deciding whether she will be fully independent or a Reason aligned candidate at the next state election.

Ms Cupper on Friday joined forces with Reason Party leader and Upper House MP Fiona Patten to announce a new coalition.

But Ms Cupper, deputy leader of the Reason coalition, said she would be remaining an independent under the deal.

She likened the situation to a Nationals MP being elected to a coalition but still retaining their party affiliation.

Liberal Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell slammed the move, arguing Ms Cupper was “no longer an independent” and had “betrayed the trust of voters”.

“She is now a Reason Party Member of parliament and that’s not what the people of Mildura voted for,” Ms Lovell said.

Ms Cupper denied she would be bound to voting in lock-step with the Reason Party.

When there was “irreconcilable difference” between Reason and the interests of Mildura, Ms Cupper said she would side with her community.

But she also said there was overlap between Reason policy and Mildura needs, such as calls for a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.

Ms Cupper said she hadn’t yet thought about what her 2022 candidacy would look like and would weigh up the views of her constituents.

“If my community has confidence in this (model) then I will be running in accordance with that (as a Reason coalition candidate),” she said.

“If my community says ‘hey, we like that, but we want to see the composition of parliament first in the next term and we want you to be an independent now’, I’ll do that too.”

The move by the two politicians to join forces was pitched as a way to advance pushes for regional rates reform and the return of passenger trains to Mildura.

As recently as last week, the Victorian Government poured cold water on the idea of trains by talking up the number of bus services to and from the regional centre.

Ms Cupper expressed confidence Ms Patten’s position in the Upper House, where the government does not hold a majority, would help create outcomes.

“I know, with every fibre of my being, that this will give us leverage,” she said.

“Though we’ve been doing really well, and we’ve been kicking goals and have a great relationship with the government, this will take it up a notch and if I wasn’t 100 per cent confident of that I wouldn’t be doing it.”

Voters in the Mildura electorate gave just 169 votes to the Reason Upper House ticket at the 2018 election, 0.45 per cent of formal ballots.

In the Lower House, Ms Cupper won her seat from The Nationals by 253 votes.

Ms Cupper said because Reason was “an evidence based party, not ideological”, it was progressive on social issues and moderate on economic issues.

“I think that positioning is actually very reflective of a modern regional community,” she said.

Ms Patten said the pair would still treat each vote as a conscience vote.

They would also share information about legislation and be “better informed” about a wider set of issues.

Ms Patten said the Reason Party would look “very carefully” about running a candidate from Mildura in the Upper House in two years.

None of the six current Northern Victoria MPs live in the Mildura electorate.

Ms Lovell said issues such as rates reform and the passenger train had been “well raised” in the Upper House before by Liberal and National MPs.