Election 2022: ‘Integrity’ independents campaign run by a fraudster

Campaign manager for a group of independents spruiking integrity as an issue has a conviction for trying to defraud taxpayers and was disbarred as a lawyer.

The Local Party campaign manager Jo Matthews. Picture: Facebook

The campaign manager for a group of independents spruiking integrity as an election issue has a conviction for trying to defraud taxpayers and was disbarred as a lawyer for “the protection of the public”.

Joanne Frances Matthews, The Local Party’s campaign manager, was in 2007 found guilty of attempting to dishonestly acquire a financial advantage and fined $15,000.

The conviction related to an August 2005 first-home buyers grant application in which Ms Matthews declared she had never previously owned a home.

This statement was later ­described by Supreme Court Justice Shan Tennent as “clearly false”, given that she had previously jointly owned two homes.

Ms Matthews was not prosecuted over an earlier first-home buyers application, made in July 2005. However, Justice Tennent later noted Ms Matthews had “accepted that, had she been charged, the inevitable result would have been a conviction for the same offence in respect of which she was convicted on 15 November 2007”.

In December 2010, the Law Society of Tasmania succeeded in having Ms Matthews, at that time an undischarged bankrupt, removed from the legal practitioners roll.

Justice Tennant found Ms Matthews’ “dishonesty … amounted to professional misconduct”, concluding: “She ­demonstrated a willingness to, on two separate occasions, make false declarations, with the only possible reason for them being to obtain a financial benefit for ­herself and her husband, to which she was not entitled.

“In this case there was deliberate dishonesty on two occasions for the purpose of potential personal gain. The protection of the public requires in such ­circumstances that the respondent’s name be removed from the roll.”

Ms Matthews declined to comment, but Local Party founder and Senate candidate Leanne Minshull stood by her, accusing political opponents of muckraking.

“The digging up of the personal circumstances of a par- time worker on our campaign is emblematic of a toxic political culture that we are trying to change,” Ms Minshull said.

“Jo Matthews has been working five days a week for two days’ pay, helping us to make politics better. The fact she had problems over a decade ago should not be a barrier for her to contribute now.

“Jo is not standing for public office and should not be put under this type of attack. I was aware that Jo had been disbarred – she told me that at our first meeting.

“Whatever her actions a decade ago, Jo has worked with us with the utmost integrity.”

The Local Party is standing candidates in the Tasmanian lower house seats of Braddon and Franklin, while founder Leanne Minshull is vying for the state’s sixth Senate seat. It also has a South Australian Senate candidate.

Ms Minshull lists “a more transparent and accountable parliament – including the creation of a federal independent commission against corruption with teeth” – as her first policy priority.