Victorian Greens’ campaign event funding row

Questions are being asked about the Greens-majority City of Yarra’s independence from the political party and its Richmond candidate’s campaign.

Greens candidate for the inner northeastern Melbourne seat of Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri. Picture: Facebook

The Victorian Greens have advertised council ratepayer-funded children’s activities as a feature of one of their state election campaign events, and blamed the Indigenous arts organisation with which they co-hosted the “Community Block Party” for what they say was an error.

Greens candidate for the inner northeastern Melbourne seat of Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri, co-hosted the Collingwood event on Monday, alongside the Blak Pearl Aboriginal Cultural and Creative studio.

As recently as Tuesday afternoon, advertising on Ms de Vietri’s Facebook page touted the event as including “kids (sic) activities with Yarra Youth Services”.

Ms de Vietri is a former mayor of local Greens-majority council the City of Yarra – which runs Yarra Youth Services – and is currently on a leave of absence from the council.

When contacted by The Australian on Tuesday, a Victorian Greens spokeswoman said no services had been provided by the City of Yarra for the event.

“The co-host community organisation originally approached Yarra Youth Services, but when Ms de Vietri was alerted, she correctly identified this wasn’t appropriate and cancelled the service,” the spokeswoman said.

A City of Yarra spokeswoman said: “Yarra Youth Services did not participate in the Blak Pearl event. Council’s Youth Services logo was used by the organisers without council authorisation”.

It is understood previous Blak Pearl youth “block party” events have been run in conjunction with the City of Yarra.

Questions regarding the event follow the City of Yarra this week threatening Richmond Liberal candidate Lucas Moon with enforcement action for campaigning at Richmond’s Gleadell Street market without a permit. Greens sources claimed on Tuesday that other politicians – including retiring Labor MP Richard Wynne and candidate Lauren O’Dwyer, and Reason Party MP Fiona Patten – had not received the same threats because sitting MPs are permitted to book stalls and do not need permits.

Both Mr Wynne and Ms Patten rejected this claim, having campaigned without permits alongside Mr Moon at the market on Saturday.

“I have never booked a stall at the Gleadell St Market, ever,” Mr Wynne told The Australian.

“As the local member I’m regularly there, and I take questions from all comers.”

Ms Patten said she was “perplexed” by the City of Yarra’s treatment of Mr Moon.

“We did not book a stall. In fact we set up an A-frame and some volunteers and some clipboards and we were actually right next to Lucas, and I ran into Dick (Wynne) while I was there,” she said.

“We’ve been campaigning in other areas of Yarra without question, as we do in every other electorate and local government area.”

Mr Moon said the Greens talked about integrity in politics but had “failed every test to walk that basic standard”.

Yarra Residents’ Collective spokesman Adam Promnitz said both incidents highlighted “the lack of independence between the council executive and the Greens”.

Freedom of Information requests confirmed earlier this year that Ms de Vietri claimed almost $7000 from ratepayers for childcare in 2020 – including for a private nanny during lockdowns.

The identity of the nanny continues to be concealed by the City of Yarra and Ms de Vietri, and the Greens spokeswoman did not answer questions on Tuesday about whether the person was a family or party member.

The Andrews government appointed a municipal monitor in December 2021 to improve the City of Yarra’s performance and accountability, after a series of concerns were raised during Ms de Vietri’s mayoral term about the council’s governance and ability to make decisions in the interests of the local community.

Mr Wynne is retiring after 23 years as the local MP, and currently holds a 5.8 per cent margin against the Greens, with polls showing Ms de Vietri ahead of Labor’s Ms O’Dwyer.

Ms de Vietri is a professional artist, while Ms O’Dwyer is a former Arts Centre and Andrews government adviser, who recently generated controversy when she told a community election forum that as a fair-skinned Yorta Yorta woman her colour had been “stolen”, and spoke of taking her eight-year-old daughter to Richmond’s injecting room to “meet mob”, because the location has “become a gathering space for a lot of traditional owners”.

Mr Moon is an army veteran, RSL president and business executive. LGBTIQ activist and Safe Schools founder Roz Ward is also running in Richmond as the Victorian Socialists’ candidate.