STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms CHESTERS (Bendigo) (13:53): My seat in the 2025 federal election was not spared from the exclusive Brethren muscle, except in my seat, rather than putting on blue T-shirts, they put on yellow National Party T-shirts—a change. Our seat had always been a contest between Labor and Liberal for many decades, but the money was flowing into the Nationals campaign, as was the muscle.

Like in other electorates, there were similar reports of harassment of voters as they approached the polling booth; people being stopped in their cars and handed how-to-vote cards; people's car doors being opened, despite the fact they were parking in the car park to catch the train; and yelling at voters and volunteers. I can remember my own experience at early voting.

There was the same face, quite high up in the operation. Once a day, he'd take his yellow T-shirt off, stand in front of me and yell in my face—clearly to intimidate the other voters and me—about his rant of the day. He was so angry that, if he were a cartoon, there'd be steam coming out of his ears and frothing at the mouth.

After he'd had his moment, he would then put his yellow T-shirt back on and join the queue. Small country booths that usually had two volunteers had 20 volunteers. The question needs to be asked: why and who and what ordered this level of intimidation at our polling booths?