Electoral Commission "investigating" Team Quirk tactics

NEWS

 

Brisbane Lord Mayoral independent candidate Jim Eldridge says the Queensland Electoral Commission is now investigating his formal complaints to it earlier this month over Team Quirk election material “that is misleading or likely to mislead voters” .

As the only media outlet that has campaigned solidly since the 2012 poll against the LNP/Team Quirk’s copycat council cleat, The Independent applauds Mr Eldridge’s actions.

And it issues a simple challenge of its own to the QEC: If the organisation’s basic remit is to conduct fair and open elections, then it must use whatever powers it has to make the LNP and Team Quirk desist immediately from tactics that this newspaper believes the vast majority of voters would see as clearly deceptive and politically dishonest.

And the QEC has only one question to answer: why does Team Quirk use yellow and blue blocks down the left-hand-side of election material if not to let voters think it’s the council’s official branding “cleat”?

In his letter of complaint, Mr Eldridge (pictured) hit out at the use of both the copycat council cleat (this newspaper's description) and the way the LNP placed official ECQ postal vote forms inside LNP envelopes using maroon colours that match ECQ documents.

In his letter seeking an urgent investigation with the 19 March poll date looming, Mr Eldridge said both tactics were “creating the impressions that the ECQ and or BCC endorses the featured LNP candidates” and “carries great weight and direct influence on voters and misleads them in relation to the way of voting”.

Mr Eldridge suggested the QEC also investigate LNP candidate vehicles “featuring the official BCC logo and LNP billboards and signs displaying the BCC blue and yellow [design] in the left borders which BCC uses to distinguish their materials”.

Mr Eldridge said of these and several other Team Quirk tactics: “Aside from being morally inappropriate, it appears this conduct was illegal”.

“With local government elections fast approaching, I respectfully request an expedited investigation of this matter.” Mr Eldridge concluded.

And he continued his attack in a recent media release.

“Graham Quirk is misleading voters into believing he is the Brisbane City Council. He is not. He is a member of a political party and holding himself out to be officially endorsed by the BCC during an election campaign goes to his lack of moral values.”

“It also raises serious questions about the independence and integrity of the Chief Executive Officer of the BCC, Colin Jensen, who should be the one prosecuting this complaint to the ECQ”, Mr Eldridge said.

 

Below: A Team Quirk political pamphlet that Mr Eldridge included in his request for a QEC investigation: Bottom: The official council cleat on a bus timetable in the Valley.

 

 

 

 

 OUR SAY: What the QEC needs to know….

The LNP/Team Quirk only use their copycat cleat for Brisbane City Council elections.

It is designed for no other purpose than to let voters think it’s the council’s official branding cleat. It is used for no other reason than to link Team Quirk with council, thereby creating the impression Team Quirk are the council’s official election team.

For four long years, Lord Mayor Quirk refused to answer questions from The Independent asking him to explain how his copycat council cleat differed from the real thing, and why he believed those differences are sufficient that the average Brisbane voter could tell the difference.

Council CEO Colin Jensen has admitted to The Independent after examining Team Quirk political material that it uses the same colours as on the official council cleat. But he told the paper he could not take action because the dimensions on the blocks used by Team Quirk were not exactly the same as on the official branding cleat.

The dimensions of the blocks used pervasively by Team Quirk in 2012 and again now fall well inside the range that the official cleat displays to the public eye.

Some legalistic notion that what Team Quirk uses “does not impinge on the council cleat” is, in this newspaper’s view, highly risible, as is its claim that what it uses is in fact LNP branding.

The LNP/Team Quirk’s sneaky and tricky use of its copycat council cleat is giving them a totally undeserved advantage over political rivals who are doing the right thing and obeying the council rule that says the council’s cleat must not be used for political purposes.