Avi Yemini's 'Free Palestine' scheme helps kill Victoria's group voting system
Rebel News Australia chief correspondent Avi Yemini joins the show to explain how an elaborate political troll helped bring about a major change to Victoria’s electoral system.
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Avi Yemini set out to expose what he says is a broken electoral system in Victoria. Now the controversial voting system he targeted is reportedly being repealed.
Yemini, Rebel News Australia’s chief correspondent, made headlines after registering a political party called the “Free Palestine Party” ahead of Victoria’s November election.
But there was a catch: Yemini isn’t a pro-Palestinian activist. He is anti-Islamism and served in the IDF. And he knew he could play the game to unite low-info voters on the far left and the right around a common issue and then redirect those voters to the conservative One Nation Party. The entire thing was a political stunt designed to demonstrate how Victoria’s group voting ticket system could be gamed, and had been for years by the organized left.
Under the system, voters who cast an Upper House ballot “above the line” effectively allow their chosen party to determine where their preferences flow. According to the Victorian Electoral Commission, a whopping 90.5 percent of formal Upper House ballots in the 2022 election were cast above the line.
Avi argued the system allowed political operatives and minor parties to manipulate preference deals in ways many voters may never have understood.
So he decided to demonstrate the problem rather than merely complain about it.
Avi asked his enormous online audience to help him register the Free Palestine Party, openly explaining that the plan was to attract unsuspecting left-wing and pro-Palestinian voters before directing preferences toward conservative parties. He was completely honest about his plan.
“What is the one issue that unites useful idiots from the far left to the fringe right, to certain immigrant cultures that have imported their hate… Free Palestine,” Yemini said while unveiling the stunt.
The Victorian Electoral Commission ultimately approved Yemini’s party. In an extraordinary twist, a separate Free Palestine Party organized by actual Palestinian activists was then rejected because its proposed name was considered too similar to Yemini’s already-registered party.
But Yemini’s trolling exercise had a more serious purpose: exposing the absurdities created by group voting tickets.
And it worked.
The controversy helped put renewed attention on Victoria being the last Australian state parliament still using the system, and the government has now moved to repeal group voting tickets.
