Exposed: teal candidate ‘seeks’ preference deal with One Nation in key seat of Flinders

A prominent teal candidate in the hotly-contested seat of Flinders prayed with his One Nation opponent and allegedly asked the Hanson man for a preference deal.

Clockwise from left: Teal candidate Ben Smith on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula on Sunday; on his way to St Mark's Anglican Church in Dromana; One Nation's Mike Brown at the church.

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A prominent teal candidate backed by Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 cashbox prayed with his One Nation opponent and allegedly asked the Hanson man for a preference deal.

The unconventional encounter between teal Ben Smith and One Nation’s candidate for the hotly-contested Victorian seat of Flinders, Mike Brown, has tipped into recriminations over who brought them together at an Anglican Church last Wednesday and for what purpose.

Conspiracy theories abound over which side had the most to gain – or lose when the meeting was leaked.

But this is an embarrassment for the teals, who strive to be seen to be above the transactional business of politics as it is practised by the major parties.

Mr Brown, a former real estate advocate and co-parent of seven who was ordained by a charismatic church in the US, claims Mr Smith proposed the catch-up and asked him for “support” in what promises to be a willing contest in Liberal-held Flinders, a crossover electorate leading on to the beaches and national parks of Mornington Peninsula from Melbourne’s outer urban fringe.

Mr Brown took this to be a pitch by Mr Smith for One Nation preferences.

Mr Smith, who is chief executive of the Mornington Community Support Centre and styles himself as a grassroots independent, said he sought no such help from the One Nation candidate.

He was adamant he would not strike a deal on preferences with anyone.

“Mike asked for a meeting and I will happily meet with any candidate running in this election,” Mr Smith told The Australian.

“Mike and I don’t agree on everything but we both believe in respectful conversations across the political spectrum.”

It would be difficult to find an odder political couple than Mr Smith and Mr Brown. And no two groups could be further apart in policy terms than the progressive teal Independents – bankrolled by Mr Holmes a Court’s brimming election fund, mostly in former or existing Liberal seats – and right-leaning One Nation led by septuagenarian populist Pauline Hanson.

Mr Smith is one of seven teal MPs and candidates being sponsored by Climate 200 in Victoria, potentially the decisive battleground of the May 3 federal election where the Coalition is hoping that the unpopularity of Premier Jacinta Allan’s state Labor government will transfer to the federal arena and cost Anthony Albanese seats.

Mr Brown, meanwhile, is funding his own campaign, hampered by the injuries he suffered in a car crash four years ago. He calls himself a “thinking candidate” whose policy positions transcend his firm religious beliefs.

Flinders has been a Liberal jewel for all but one term in the past half-century, held by party luminaries including the late Peter Reith and former health minister Greg Hunt, who retired at the 2022 election. His successor, Zoe McKenzie, is defending a solid but not insurmountable margin of 6.2 per cent; Peter Dutton’s potential path to power is so narrow that the Opposition Leader can ill afford her to lose.

Mr Brown said he had stationed himself outside a campaign event for Mr Smith at the Dromana Estate winery on March 30 when he was engaged by the teal in a brief conversation.

“Ben was in his car leaving the function and stopped when he saw me,” Mr Brown said.

“He wound his window down and said, ‘what’s your number?’

“So I shouted it out to him and he drove off. Then he … sent me a text message saying, ‘I’d like to catch up with you’.”

St Marks Anglican Church, Dromana, on the Mornington Peninsula, where Mr Brown says Mr Smith asked him for One Nation preferences. They also prayed together. Picture: Supplied

The original plan was to meet at Mr Brown’s home – but his wife, ill with pneumonia, asked they go elsewhere. Mr Brown knew that Mr Smith professed to be a committed Christian, so he suggested St Mark’s in Dromana, where he worships. Mr Smith agreed to be there at 4pm last Wednesday, April 2.

Neither man was aware they were being covertly photographed and videoed, and the question of who leaked details of the meetings is also in dispute.

Mr Brown admitted he had informed in advance the One Nation leadership in Victoria that he was seeing Mr Smith, but denied setting up his opponent.

Inside the church, the two men sat side-by-side near the altar.

Describing the scene, Mr Brown said: “I said, before we start, ‘is it all right if I pray for you?’ So we grabbed hands and we prayed in front of the altar.”

Confirming this, Mr Smith said: “During the meeting, Mr Brown offered a prayer.”

But there is no agreement on what they went on to discuss in the empty church.

Mr Brown is adamant that Mr Smith asked for his backing. “He just said, ‘I would like your support … I am here for your support’,” Mr Brown recounted.

Asked what he interpreted Mr Smith’s request to mean, the One Nation man said: “We both agreed I wasn’t going to win this election … I’m a nobody, really, without the backing he has and the multitudes of people running around with his T-shirt on. So for me, when he said, ‘support’, I recognised that he wanted my preferences. That’s what I felt.”

Rejecting this account of the conversation, Mr Smith said: “I don’t do preference deals, as is stated clearly on my website.

“I’m just asking voters to vote 1 Ben Smith and number every box how they see fit.”

Mr Brown said he wasn’t authorised to negotiate preferences and didn’t, a point driven home by Senator Hanson when, having been informed of his meeting with Mr Smith, she phoned next day to issue a stern “please explain”.

Her chief of staff, James Ashby, who was on the call, said party headquarters decided preferences and it was made “abundantly clear” to Mr Brown how the order would go on the One Nation how-to-vote card: Labor third last, teals second last, Greens dead last.

“I don’t want voters to think there are any footsies going on with teals because it will not be happening,” Mr Ashby said.

Ben Smith with supporters.

In any event, Mr Brown said he had decided that Mr Smith’s positions were too extreme on gender fluidity – “it’s not in the Bible and I can’t be pro-something that is not in the Bible” – climate, the pace of the energy transition to renewables and immigration policy.

He said his doubts were confirmed when he asked Mr Smith, after they prayed together, to nominate a favourite verse in the Scriptures.

“He said they were all good, and I didn’t think that was a very good response,” Mr Brown said.

He also accused Mr Smith of “throwing me under the bus” by putting around a story that he, Mr Brown, had wanted a preference swap to entice One Nation to invest in his self-funded campaign in Flinders.

Mr Smith rejected this, saying on Sunday: “This is categorically untrue and never happened.”

A spokesman for Climate 200 said Mr Smith was a “great candidate with broad appeal across the political spectrum”.

His discussions with other candidates were “entirely a matter for him”.

On his election website, Mr Smith says his campaign is backed by more than 400 local donors and “accelerator funding” from Climate 200.

He says misinformation had been spread “by opponents” that he was a Mormon, rather than a pro-choice progressive Christian.

“He supports a women’s right to make decisions about her own body and will back legislation that protects this right and improves access to reproductive health care,” the website says.