One Nation candidate for Murray Plains Garner Smith has vowed not to renew his VFF membership.
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Garner Smith is finding his feet as a One Nation candidate for the Victorian election, picking his first public fight as the party’s Murray Plains candidate.
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This row is with the Victorian Farmers Federation water council, a body Mr Smith sat on until he was suspended in line with the federation’s constitution following his political preselection.
The former Gannawarra Shire mayor announced he would not renew his VFF membership, claiming advice it provided to the Victorian Government about the Sustainable Communities Fund had damaged Gannawarra Shire and northern Victoria.
Mr Smith claimed the advice was given by the council’s chair without consulting water council members and that his questions about the federation’s position were ignored.
He also said the VFF told him it would conduct a member survey about the SCF, which never happened.
Council chair Andrew Leahy said the survey was only ever discussed, not promised, and any decisions about the advice given were made by the VFF’s policy council, which he said was standard practice.
Mr Leahy said his job as the chair of the water council was to act in the interests of all the federation’s members, not a specific community.
VFF water council chair Andrew Leahy.
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“You have to wonder which hat Garner Smith is wearing here,” Mr Leahy said.
“Is he Garner the water council member, or Garner the Gannawarra Shire mayor?
“This is pure politics, and it’s the wrong thing to do.”
In response, Mr Smith said he was wearing both and implied everyone, including Mr Leahy, brought potentially competing interests to the council.
“What precludes me from wearing a hat for both if I don’t believe the water council is performing its purpose?
“(Mr Leahy) said the policy council is making the decision here, well, who knows what happened on a policy council level?
“I would have thought it was appropriate to bring it to the water council because it’s irrigation communities which are impacted, and they’re where the money is meant to go.”
Mr Leahy said he wasn’t interested in a verbal punching match and that the specifics of the VFF’s positions on the SCF funding proposal were not appropriate to be shared publicly.
“The SCF raises a range of important and complex considerations and exists to benefit irrigation communities,” he said.
“As a council, we work towards finding common ground wherever possible, but it’s not always possible when we're balancing strongly held views and competing interests.
“The VFF advocates for agriculture, irrigators and regional communities, not individual shires.”
Mr Smith said he wasn’t looking for a fight, he wanted accountability.
When questioned if his decision to publicly announce he wouldn’t be seeking a return to the water council despite being suspended since August was a stunt, he said everyone was entitled to their opinion.
“I’m only off the water council if I get elected, and if I get elected, well, they’ve got a whole other headache because they’ve got to deal with me as an elected representative,” he said.
The Victorian election will take place on November 28.
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