The Australian Values Party (AVP) was an

Australian political party The politics of Australia has a mild two-party system, with two dominant political groupings in the Australian political system, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia. Federally, 12 of the 151 members of the lower house ( ...

founded in 2021 by ADF

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces. A topic o ...

Heston Russell. The party's main focus was veterans' rights, although it had policy positions on other subjects as well. The party was disbanded in June 2023 and voluntarily deregistered the following month.

History

The party was registered by the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union A ...

as a political party on 18 January 2022, after applying for registration on 17 September 2021. The Australian Values Party fielded candidates in the

2022 Australian federal election The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 May 2022, to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Morrison government, Liberal–National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, soug ...

. In August 2022, the AVP announced the Angry Victorians Party would contest the Victorian state election as a branch of the party. Independent member for the

Western Metropolitan Region Western Metropolitan Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which elects five members to the Victorian Legislative Council (also referred to as the upper house) by proportional representation. The region was create ...

Catherine Cumming Catherine Rebecca Cumming is a former Australian politician. She was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council from November 2018 to November 2022, representing the Western Metropolitan Region. She stood at the 2018 Victorian state election ...

, joined the party in November after having her application to register the Independence Party refused. On 16 November 2022, party leader Heston Russell leaked a video to the ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...

'' of him to talking to

Glenn Druery Glenn William Druery is an Australian political strategist, electoral campaigner and ultra-distance cyclist. He has played a leading role in the electoral success of various micro and minor parties in Australia since the mid-1990s. He acquired ...

about a potential preference deal, declaring that the AVP felt the co-ordination of the

group voting ticket A group voting ticket (GVT) is a shortcut for voters in a Ranked voting systems, preferential voting system, where a voter can indicate support for a list of candidates instead of marking preferences for individual candidates. For multi-member ele ...

system used by Druery was immoral and needed to be exposed. Heston donated $650,000 to the party in 2022–23, before winding it up in June 2023, and its ultimate deregistration as a party in August 2023.

Policies

The party has been focused on policies supporting disaster relief, defence and veterans’ affairs, and a heavy health & mental health focus. Party leader Heston Russell has been at the forefront of campaigning on Veterans’ Affairs policy since 2020.

Political representatives

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Victorian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House, Melbourne, Parliament ...

(2022)

Stonnington City Council

*Joe Gianfriddo (2023)

References

External links

* {{Political parties in Victoria (Australia) 2021 establishments in Australia 2023 disestablishments in Australia Political parties established in 2021 Political parties disestablished in 2023 Political parties in Australia Populist parties Australian veterans' organisations