Exclusive: Party’s strategy questioned as campaigner says One Nation is not ‘capitalising on the groundswell’
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One Nation candidates in a number of winnable Victorian seats say they have been left to fund their own campaigns, with several questioning the party’s strategy ahead of the election.
Six candidates and campaigners, unauthorised to speak publicly, have told Guardian Australia their campaign material – including pamphlets, corflutes and roadside banners – have been paid for entirely through the $5,500 contribution they are required to make after being preselected.
They claim One Nation has not contributed any of its own money towards the material and that their payments will only be reimbursed if they secure at least 4% of first preference votes in their seat, which unlocks public funding for the party.
Two candidates have also said they were initially told their campaigns would receive a share of revenue from One Nation merchandise their teams sold. They claim that arrangement was changed in recent weeks, with all proceeds now going to the party.
The approach has left some within One Nation in Victoria concerned – particularly those with experience in other political parties.
One former Liberal campaigner, who is now volunteering for One Nation’s campaign in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, said the contrast between the two parties couldn’t be greater. “In key seats, the Liberal party would be spending $100,000, if not more,” they said, requesting anonymity to speak without the party’s approval. “One Nation is asking its candidates to front up the cash and then submit an expense claim after the election.” The campaigner said the One Nation candidate they were supporting was expected to pay thousands for their own election material – something a Liberal party candidate would “never be forced to do”. They said One Nation’s approach was “really hard to understand” given the party could be entitled to more than $7m in public funding after the election, if current polling translated into votes. “Why aren’t they spending the money?” they said. “They don’t seem to be capitalising on the groundswell of support they are receiving.”
Other candidates, including Michael Piastrino in the marginal seat of Berwick, have paid for additional campaign material after securing money from donors.
“If you can’t raise a couple of thousand dollars then don’t run as a candidate,” Piastrino said. “Anyone that wants to be a candidate needs to understand that you need to raise money. We are a fairly new party.”
Piastrino did not criticise the party for not spending its own money and said support for One Nation was already strong across the state.
On Thursday afternoon, One Nation Victoria’s party leader, Warren Pickering, said campaigns were expensive and the party’s budget was being managed responsibly. He said there was an expectation that candidates generate financial support from their electorate.
“We’ve previously seen candidates get endorsed and sit on their hands,” Pickering said. “To incentivise people to actively get out there and provide the type of community advocacy we expect of our elected members of parliament, it helps to have them contribute to their campaigns.”
During the federal election, One Nation asked candidates to sign an agreement outlining how they could submit claims for campaign expenses if they reached a certain vote threshold. Guardian Australia has previously reported on some candidates being left out of pocket.
Meanwhile, One Nation is spending less than the two major parties on digital advertising in Victoria. Analysis by the marketing and communications agency Populares shows the party has only spent $21,300 on Meta advertising since 1 September, compared with Labor at $2.81m and the Liberals just under $550,000.
“One Nation benefits overall from their organic content being favoured by the algorithm, but their candidates must be feeling left high and dry by the party when they see the advertising support their opponents receive,” said Populares chief executive Ed Coper, who previously worked with Climate 200 and some teal candidates during the 2025 federal election.
“Victorian Labor has spent as much as $80,000 on candidate-specific social media ads in some seats, whereas One Nation has only spent a quarter of that on their entire election campaign on paid social media ads.”
Pickering has previously said the party was unlikely to run television ads and would limit doorknocking, something Labor considers one of the most effective ways to win over voters.
The former Liberal campaigner claimed One Nation was more focused on securing the balance of power in the upper house than building a strong campaign in lower house seats and suggested the party’s attention was instead on the New South Wales and federal elections.
In recent weeks, both Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have played down the significance of the Victorian election as a measure of the party’s broader support.
