Citizens, Trumpets, Hearts: A guide to the Victorian Senate ballot

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While all the senators up for re-election in Victoria belong to the Coalition, Labor and the Greens, there’s also a rag-team team of minor and micro-parties vying for your vote.

Who they are and what they represent is not always clear from the name. We have created a cheat sheet to explain the characters and policies as Victorians start casting their early ballots.

The minor and micro-party candidates vying for your vote in the senate.Credit:

You may notice some Senate groups don’t have a party title, just a letter of the alphabet. In those cases, candidates have teamed up but don’t have enough members to register as a party. The Australian Electoral Commission has given them a letter of the alphabet depending on where they fall on the ballot paper.

There are also ungrouped independent candidates who are running on their own. You can only vote for them below the line.

If you’re voting above the line, you need to number from at least 1 to 6. To vote below the line, number from at least 1 to 12.

Legalise Cannabis Party

Legalise Cannabis does exactly what it says on the tin – advocate for the legalisation and regulation of cannabis for personal, medicinal and industrial use.

Legalise Cannabis Senate candidate Fiona Patten, when she was a Reason Party MP in the Victorian parliament.Credit: Justin McManus

Fiona Patten, the former leader of the now defunct Reason Party (previously the Sex Party), is at the top of the ticket. She was an MP in the Victorian upper house for two terms and was known as a progressive reformist influencing the Labor government.

Animal Justice Party

The Animal Justice Party is also pretty self-explanatory. The micro-party is against any lethal methods for controlling animal populations, wants to end factory farming and live exports, wants to help a transition towards regenerative farming and supports clean energy.

Indigenous – Aboriginal Party of Australia

This party was founded by Uncle Owen Whyman, the son of late Aboriginal rights campaigner William Bates from the NSW Aboriginal community Wilcannia alongside the Darling River, or the Baaka. The river had been beset with fish kills and the town was overrun with COVID-19 in 2021.

The party wants rivers restored to health, direct political representation, an end to Indigenous incarceration (except for serious offences), rehabilitation to be prioritised, Indigenous-run schools and an end to development that harms sacred sites.

Australia’s Voice

West Australian senator Fatima Payman founded Australia’s Voice after resigning from Labor, having crossed the floor to vote for recognition of Palestinian statehood.

The party also wants to limit negative gearing and reduce the capital gains tax discount to put some of the revenue towards social housing; a mandatory banking code of conduct; and to establish a public bank.

Mohamed El-Masri with Senator Fatima Payman.Credit: Fatima Payman / Instagram

Muslim community worker Mohamed El-Masri was initially endorsed by the Greens to run for the federal seat of Calwell before he quit to join Payman’s new party and lead its Victorian Senate ticket.

FUSION | Planet Rescue | Whistleblower Protection | Innovation

Fusion brings a group of single-issue micro-parties — the former Science, Pirate, Vote Planet and Secular parties — under one umbrella. They want to transition to negative carbon emissions, a universal basic income, to expand Medicare, to abolish stamp duty and to reduce migration.

Former Mansfield Shire councillor Kammy Cordner-Hunt is the party’s lead candidate in Victoria.

Group G

The Socialist Equality Party failed to be registered by the Australian Electoral Commission, so its two candidates have to run under “Group G”.

The party views even the Victorian Socialists as pseudo-left. It wants to redirect military funding to public hospitals, schools and other social services.

Trumpet of Patriots

The Trumpet of Patriots is a spin-off of the Australian Federation Party (from party hopper Vern Hughes) and the United Australia Party. Billionaire Clive Palmer is chair of the party and is once again saturating the market with bright yellow ads that have been widely criticised as offensive or misleading.

A Clive Palmer Trumpet of Patriots billboard in Melbourne.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

The party is modelled on US President Donald Trump’s style, proposing its own department of government efficiency (DOGE). It wants to cut immigration and withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations.

Family First

Former state MP Bernie Finn is Family First’s lead candidate in Victoria. He was expelled from the parliamentary Liberal Party in 2022 for saying abortion should be banned, even for rape survivors, after he’d already been warned about controversial social media posts.

Bernie Finn among supporters on the steps of Victoria’s Parliament House after being expelled by the parliamentary Liberal Party in 2022.Credit: Joe Armao

Family First wants to ban teaching on LGBTQ issues in schools, ban public servants from putting their preferred pronouns in email signatures and wind back anti-vilification laws. It also wants a stronger safety net for the poor, the repeal of voluntary assisted dying laws, the winding back of abortion access, and to “pause Muslim immigration”.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party

One Nation wants to cap migration and reduce Australia’s refugee intake, and to withdraw from the UN Refugee Convention and the Paris climate agreement. The party also wants to redirect and reduce foreign aid, abolish the National Indigenous Australians Agency, suspend GST on building materials, and limit abortion access.

Australian Democrats

This centrist party was founded in 1977 by former Liberal Don Chipp and says it acts without partisan or vested interests. It once had significant influence in the Senate but was deregistered in 2016 after its membership dwindled. While it has since been revived, it has not returned to its former glory.

Victorian Socialists

The Victorian Socialists advocate a “radical reorganisation of society” in the areas of wealth inequality, housing and workers’ rights. Leading their ticket is Jordan van den Lamb – better known online as “Purple Pingers” – a social media personality known for exposing dodgy rentals. He has a big following but has been heavily criticised for creating a database of homes that appear empty to encourage squatters.

Jordan van den Lamb, known as “Purple Pingers”, has been campaigning to help unhoused people squat in empty homes.Credit: Eddie Jim

Sustainable Australia Party – Universal Basic Income

​The Sustainable Australia Party wants to reduce immigration and limit development, and abolish negative gearing while grandfathering the benefit. The party has gone through a few iterations but has changed its focus to advocate a universal basic income of $500 a week.

Gerard Rennick People First – Heart

Queensland senator Gerard Rennick founded the People First Party in 2024 after quitting the Liberal National Party over COVID-19 restrictions. It’s since teamed up with the Heart Party, previously known as the Informed Medical Options Party, which wants an end to all “no jab, no play” policies and for fluoride to be removed from water.

Rennick’s party wants to raise the tax-free threshold, cut the corporate tax rate, scrap franking credits, make superannuation voluntary and reduce the number of work visas.

Libertarian

The Libertarian Party, previously the Liberal Democrats, wants lower taxes and advocates for civil liberties. Its policies include repealing section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and enshrining free speech in the Constitution.

Leading the party’s ticket in Victoria is Jordan Dittloff, a former travel agent who was jailed for defrauding nearly $280,000 from dozens of clients through his Colac business in 2014 and 2015. Reflecting on the experience, he has said he had an unhealthy relationship with drugs and alcohol and had focused on recovering.

Citizens Party

The Citizens Party is inspired by the late US conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche. The fringe group backs the creation of a public bank through Australia Post, opposes the AUKUS security pact and wants to ease tensions with China. The party has previously referred to human-driven climate change as alarmist pseudoscience.

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party believes farmers should be free to clear vegetation on their land. It also wants to clamp down on foreign investment, to expand the live export trade, recreational fishing and mining, and to prioritise water conservation for agriculture.

The party also backs stronger free speech and privacy protections, and wants the 1996 National Firearms Agreement implemented by John Howard reviewed.

Group T

This independent ticket, Group T, led by Raj Saini with candidates Kirti Alle and Yashaswini Kanakagiri, includes disaffected Labor members.

Kanakagiri was previously an electorate officer with Victorian Labor minister Natalie Hutchins and for Peter Khalil, the federal MP for the marginal seat of Wills.

Saini was also a Labor member from 2014, and had volunteered with the party, but confirmed to The Age he had recently quit. He said he felt party structures could be limiting and he was now free to act on the values he’d always held.

The trio wants more Medicare-funded mental health sessions, a transition to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and greater investment in affordable housing. “Tired of party politics? … It’s time for real change!”

Ungrouped

David Van: The most prominent of the independents on the ballot left the parliamentary Liberal Party in 2023 and was referred by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to the parliament’s workplace watchdog after independent senator Lidia Thorpe and former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker accused him of inappropriate touching and harassment. He has consistently denied the allegations.

Senator David Van in parliament in 2013.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

He has remained in the Senate on the crossbench. Contesting re-election means that if he loses, as he is expected to, Van will be eligible for a $105,000 “resettlement allowance”. The one-off payment is provided to parliamentarians who fail to be re-elected.

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