Victoria’s state election will be unpredictable, but one thing is for sure: One Nation is polling strongly. Whether the party can convert that into winning seats is another question, given the even spread of its support across the state. A recent Roy Morgan poll predicted One Nation could win five additional upper house seats.
The party’s priorities would include abolishing the payroll tax in regional Victoria, legalising pepper spray for self-defence, abandoning net zero goals, and repealing the statewide treaty with First Nations peoples.
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So what does a Victorian One Nation MP actually look like in practice? The party currently has one MP in the state, the upper house member Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, who was elected in 2022 to represent Northern Victoria — making her the first One Nation MP elected to the Victorian parliament. How has she used her four years there so far?
The issues in her crosshairs
In her maiden speech in February 2023, Tyrrell laid out a small set of actionable priorities, centred around limiting bureaucratic “red and green tape” and government interference in the activities of rural residents, and fixing what she said was mismanagement of waterways.
Tyrrell is not alone in viewing the Victorian state government’s management of waterways as a failure. Environmental groups have called the state’s approach to the Basin Plan “plagued by mismanagement and scandals”. Though while such groups have pushed for water to be returned to the environment, Tyrrell advocated in her maiden speech for it to be directed to irrigators:
“I will continue my fight to see water returned to the land no matter where I am, be it here, out in the field or with the cooperation of others.
“My irrigation communities can grow the most amazing produce on the face of the planet if we simply work with them, cut the red tape and let them get back on their feet.”
Tyrrell also said her constituents were “literally being choked in red and green tape” because of the “state and local governments’ overreach on people’s lives”.
“Sometimes all it takes is allowing people to collect wood from the side of the road or state forests, to fish in our waterways, to fix dirt roads with their own earthmoving equipment, to clean out a blocked drain or to build a shed and live in it.”
She also explained her views on immigration, saying her concern was “not about race or culture [but] about numbers”.
“With homelessness numbers rapidly increasing, schools full and hospitals with no beds, we have a serious issue with our current population. It is outright cruel to add more people to the population of those already struggling to get by.”
Tyrrell also said in the speech she had been inspired to jump into political action when she “noticed there were generational farms shutting down, schools closing their doors for good and townships turning into ghost towns”.
Her record since
Based on an analysis of the motions she’s moved and supported while in parliament, Tyrrell appears to have advocated for some, but not all, of her core issues.
She has moved motions on drought and water policy, calling on the government to implement hardship funding for farming households and to investigate “the viability of all reclassification options in carrying over water spilled from storages to alternatives such as environmental water”.
She also moved a motion calling on the government to ensure that road repairs were of “the highest quality and standard”.
The Tyrrell motion that received the most attention in Victorian media called for a new criminal offence for desecrating the Australian and Victorian flags. The motion was defeated.
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Another moment in the media spotlight for Tyrrell was when she spoke out against a One Nation billboard blaming the state’s “rental crisis” on immigration. Tyrrell said that message was “unsuitable” and did not reflect her opinions. She also made headlines earlier this year when she said Victoria was “on the way to full-on communism”.
The One Nation MP has also spoken out in support of several motions brought by other MPs, including a Labor motion about acknowledging the 2022 Victorian floods, and one by the Shooters, Fishers & Farmers Party arguing for loosened restrictions around firewood collection.
Tyrrell’s office declined to make her available for an interview with Crikey, saying she was busy campaigning across her geographically massive electorate of Northern Victoria, but did agree to answer some of our questions via email.
Asked what she had done to advocate for less red tape and to improve school and hospital funding and capacity since being elected, the spokesperson for Ms Tyrrell said: “[She] fundamentally believes in less red tape and has advocated for less complexity and bureaucracy in all legislation that she has considered during her term. She also raised the negative impact that bureaucratic red tape has in helping family violence victims residing in cross-border communities.
“Ms Tyrrell has advocated for increased infrastructure funding for improved schools and hospitals regularly during her term. This has been done through questions without notice, adjournment matters and constituency questions.”
As for the views on immigration she shared in her maiden speech, the spokesperson said: “Ms Tyrrell mentioned immigration only in the context of current infrastructure already at capacity of demand by the public. She is obviously aware that as a state MP she has no influence on immigration rates.”
The Northern Victoria electorate has five upper house members, the other four representing the Liberals, Labor, the Nationals and the Animal Justice Party. Roy Morgan recently predicted all Northern Victorian MPs except the Animal Justice Party’s Georgie Purcell would keep their seats, with the Greens likely to pick off her spot.
Purcell’s re-election chances were lowered by Victoria’s recent abolishment of the group voting system, which allowed political parties to allocate preferences rather than voters. New rules bringing Victoria into line with other states instead directing voters to put at least five parties above the line in order of preference.
In re-election campaign material posted by One Nation, Tyrrell was described as advocating against wind and solar farms on agricultural land, in addition to her interest in water management. The Greens candidate Cate Sinclair has campaigned on more affordable housing, accessible healthcare and funding for schools. The Liberals and Nationals have said they will focus on reducing crime, lowering taxes, and earmarking more of the state government’s infrastructure spending for the regions.
