Vic Greens urge stronger scrutiny of candidates

A review of the Victorian Greens’ poor election performance has recommended an overhaul of recruitment processes.

Greens City of Melbourne councillor Rohan Leppert. Picture: Jay Town

An internal review of the Victorian Greens’ poor performance at the November state election has recommended an overhaul of recruitment processes, following a scandal-ridden campaign in which one candidate was accused of serious sexual misconduct and another was exposed as having rapped about date rape and domestic violence.

The analysis of the Greens’ campaign by Greens City of Melbourne councillor Rohan Leppert also blames stronger scrutiny of its candidates by the Labor Party and the media, as well as micro-party preference deals arranged by “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery, for the loss of four of five upper house seats and failure to build upon their three lower house seats.

Four Greens candidates and a staff member were the subjects of damaging stories during the campaign. These included Footscray candidate Angus McAlpine, whose misogynistic and homophobic lyrics as rapper DJ Fatgut were shown to include references to date rape, domestic violence and drug use. The Greens refused to disendorse Mr McAlpine, with Victorian party leader Samantha Ratnam arguing he was on a “journey of change”.

Dominic Phillips was stood down as the candidate for Sandringham following an anonymously written complaint to the party alleging he had engaged in “serious sexual misconduct”. “In some instances we … should have been better at screening our candidates, and in others the astonishing misrepresentation of infor­mation about our people was at a level of maliciousness that we just did not predict,” Mr Leppert wrote. He found some Greens’ processes had let them down.