From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christian aming it. It's Monday, April seven, twenty twenty five. Labour has edged further ahead of the opposition after the first official week of the election campaign. New data from Newspoll has Labour leading the coalition fifty two to forty eight percent on a two party preferred basis, the same margin
that saw them win government in twenty twenty two. Law students at the University of Queensland were on the receiving end of a fiery tirade by lecturer Danny Linda last year after some left the lesson focused on Indigenous legal history.
I remember the lockdown. You're not going to get high and you're not going to last. If this is the type of behavior then you're engaging.
With You can read that exclusive story right now at the Australian dot com dot au. A Teal Independent and a One Nation candidate walk into a church. It's not a riddle. It's the very real interaction between Victorian contenders Ben Smith and Mike Brown and it was captured on camera. Everyone's got questions about what went down at the secret meeting,
but both are keeping mum, that's today's episode. For more than one hundred and thirty years, Saint Mark's Anglican Church at Dromana on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula has witnessed marriages, baptized babies and fareworld members of its small, tight knit congregation. And it's here, in this modest, single story building of sandstone and red brick, that One Nation's Lower House candidate Mike Brown has worshiped for years. Last Wednesday, he attended
Marks as he has many times before, to pray. But he was joined on this occasion not by fellow parishioners or members of his family, but by another politician, Independent Ben Smith. Both are running for the seat of Flinders in the upcoming federal election. According to The Australian's associate editor Jamie Walker, the conversation turned from the good word to politics pretty quickly.
So, according to Mike Brown, Ben Smith wanted to ask him for his support. And now, what does support mean in an election campaign from an opponent, It means preferences. Mike Brown's story is that Ben Smith made a play for One Nation preferences. Now, mister Smith categorically denies this. He said it was just a catch up that he's happy to talk to any candidate that's running in the seat, and it was no more than that.
Ben Smith is himself a man of faith. He's the CEO of the Mornington Community Support Center, an ordained minister, and the reigning Victorian Father of the Year, an honor bestowed upon him for his volunteer efforts and community work. In December, Smith formally announced his intention to run for
Parliament at next month's federal election. He's backed by Climate two hundred, the political funding behemoth that saw seven so called Teals, mostly independents, elected to the cross Bench in twenty twenty two, and he's hoping to be the first male Teal candidate elected when voters go to the polls in May.
I've seen firsthand the challenges we're facing. Lack of housing, rising costs of living, poor access to health care and infrastructure. I'm not here for party politics. I'm here for you.
Ben Smith is running against Mike Brown in Flinders, which is held by Liberal Zoe mca Kenzie.
Look, the Flinder's electorate is fascinating. It's a real jewel in the Liberal crown. She's got a reasonably sound margin of six point two percent. But that's not rock solid, that's not did safe in modern terms, and it is surmountable. And of course appeels are having a red hot go edit at this election.
So why turn to Mike Brown? Brown has lived on the Mornington Peninsula for decades where he runs a small business. And Australia's preferential voting system means the first candidates to get knocked out of the race, that is, the first losers, can help other candidates get elected by directing preferences on their how to vote cards. So there's a lot of big calls to make for each candidate. How should I tell my voters to direct their preferences and whose preferences might I get in return?
I would think you would imagine that that would be the oddest political couple in the history of odd political couples. You can't think of two parties, the Progressive Teals on one hand, and One Nation on the other hand, which is to the right in the political spectrum, hasn't really got two dollars to rub together. And I think this coming together of these two sides is enough to time make your headspin. Now why would Ben Smith want it? Well, the fact is for him to get over that six
point two percent margin. He needs every vote he can get, and I think this is clearly his motivation. Now, Whether it was just a catch up with a couple of friendly blokes with nothing much to do on a Wednesday afternoon to sit in an empty church and pray together and have some sort of discussion, who knows, but it's certainly a I think a talking point is a fair thing to say.
In a video scene by the Australian Ben Smith was captured walking into Saint Mark's Anglican Church ahead of that meeting with Mike Brown. The thing is neither side is copping to it.
Mike Brown's story is that he had set up outside a campaign function for mister Smith last Sunday, March thirty, and that as mister Smith drove away from that function, he mister Brown was sitting there waving the one.
Nation flag as you do.
But as mister Smith was leading that function, Brown says that he stopped, wound down his window and said, hey, give me your number. And the next day or the day after sometime after this, he gets a call and mister Smith is suggesting that they get together. Now, the original plan was that they meet at mister Brown's place, but that kind of fell through when mister Brown's wife, he's got pneumonia at the moment, said I'd really rather
not have that here, which is kind of understandable. So mister Brown then suggested that they meet at his church, Saint Mark's. They did on Wednesday afternoon, and some means that we're not quite clear on, this meeting was filmed, so there's all sorts of allegations of setups and who leaked what going on in the background now over this because again for mister Smith, I think this is quite a considerable embarrassment that he is trying to have a
chat to one nation on any terms. To be perfectly frank.
Coming up, what should we expect from the Teals at next month's election. The electorate of Flinders was one of the original seats to be contested at the very first federal election in nineteen oh one. It was held by Greg Hunt for almost twenty years prior to his retirement in twenty twenty two. Though there's only a few percent in an independent like Ben Smith has a tall mountain to climb if he wants to win Flinders from the Liberals.
But after its unprecedented success in twenty twenty two, the Climate two hundred is even more motivated for next month's vote. That means the Teals could play a major role in returning Anthony Albernezi and Labor to government. The question is if they're in a position to negotiate After a series
of hiccups and gaffes. Last month, the husband of Monique Ryan landed the Ku Yong mp in hot water after he was filmed stealing the campaign signage of her Liberal competitor from Are you Monik Ryan supporter?
Ripping down people's signs? Aya?
Is that what you're doing? It belongs to me.
Hey, you can take it off the property, but it belongs to me.
If it goes back up, it'll be taken down again.
There you go, Monique Ryan, There you go, community values. Well done mate.
Last week, the candidate for Bradfield, Nicolette Buller, was banned from a Sydney hairdressing salon after she made a crude remark to a teenage employee.
The Teel Independent challenger for the seat of Bradfield has apologized for making a sexual comment to a worker in a hair salon. She said in a statement it was a poor attempt at humor promising to do better.
And today The Australian is reporting that Alegras Beender, the Member for Wentworth, gave an interview in which she appeared to take credit for the release of hundreds from indefinite detention.
I think the independence gave the government political cover to be able to deal with this, because refugees has been an area that the Coalition has really hammered labor on in the past. So I think if he had all the Libs back in these seats and was such as tier Parliament as it was before, you know, you would have been much harder for the government to do it.
Here's Jamie Walker.
Look, I think this is a perception problem for the Chiels. They like to present themselves as being pure as the driven snow in terms of not playing the grubby political games that everyone else plays. What's now very evident is that they do. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but this is politics in Australia. This is the sausage making that goes on behind the scenes in an.
Election which the political players really would rather that you not see. So what it's basically saying is that the Teals aren't much different to anyone else, and they of course would be appalled by that notion. Now in terms of their negotiating position after the election, well, obviously I would think it's potentially stronger than it was in twenty twenty two. But it's all going to come down, of course,
to the mathematics. If Labor gets a majority, which looks like being difficult for Anthony alp and easy, the Teals are in no position, are they if it's a minority parliament.
It's very hard to see how most of the Teals, or most of the current Teals, with the exception perhaps of a League respinder, would be prepared to negotiate with Dutton. But let's see, there's still a long way to go in this campaign. We're only in week two. Things are only just starting to shake out. Peter Dutton has had a pretty ordinary start to the campaign. I think most people would agree. But does that put Labor in a
stronger position than it thought it might be? Maybe, and that is actually not good for the Teals in the sense that if Anthony Albineasi it does retain majority government, it doesn't have to talk to them to form government, and may we'll still have to talk to David Pocock in the Senate, of course, but the Greens there are far more significant as a block than the Teals are.
Jamie Walker is an associate editor with The Australian. You can read all about what the Teal candidates have been up to in the run up to next month's federal election anytime at the Australian dot com dot au