Victorian Election 2022

The government is not on your side.

If you’ve found your way to the Liberal Democrats page, you’re probably already somewhat aware of this fact. As Australia’s only libertarian party, we are leading the fight against everything that is wrong with the government in Victoria.

Whether it be over-regulation in every area of our lives, hyperbolic crises where the “solution” is civilian subservience and government expansion, rampant public spending driving up inflation and cost-of-living—if the government is doing something wrong, our MPs are speaking against it.

As you can imagine, this is quite the task: government does wrong far more often than it does right.

This November, help us to return Tim Quilty and David Limbrick to Parliament, and help us add to their voices from our cast of fantastic candidates. The next time the government does something grotesque and against the interests of Victorians, we want to hear a chorus of our dissenting MPs pushing back and fighting for the principles of individual liberty.

Liberal Democrats: Getting elected to get out of your way.

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The district boundaries have changed since last election. You can check which district you are enroled in with the VEC.

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Legislative Council Candidates

David Limbrick

South Eastern Metro Region

David Limbrick MP represents the South East Metro Region and is seeking re-election in the Victorian Upper House. David is a long time advocate of free markets and a free society. Since being elected in 2018, he has tackled issues such as tax, regulation, energy policy and drug law reform. During the pandemic, David has been a leading critic of the Government’s response. David is a regular TV commentator on state issues.

Prior to being elected, David has spent much of his career working in business intelligence, working most recently as a senior manager in the finance industry. David grew up in Cranbourne and is married with 3 children.

Ethelyn King

South Eastern Metro Region

Ethelyn King has lived in the South-Eastern suburbs of Melbourne for nearly 30 years after spending her primary years in Gippsland. She was raised with the values her parents instilled within her such as to act with integrity, fairness and respect for the individual.

The last 2 years of creeping authoritarianism, government overreach, and lack of accountability from both major political parties motivated Ethelyn to take the bold step into politics.

Working full time in the learning sector, married to a small business owner and mother of 2 small children, Ethelyn understands the pressures facing families and couples – rising cost of living and housing unaffordability, but especially, Ethelyn wants to ensure that the harms that have been caused to children by pandemic restrictions, never happens again.

Ethelyn embraces and believes the writings of Voltaire have never taken on more meaning: “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”

Tim Quilty

Northern Victoria Region

Tim Quilty MP represents the Northern Victoria Region and is seeking re-election in the Victorian Upper House. Tim is a former councillor and a consistent advocate for regional communities. During his time in parliament, he has advocated to protect timber workers, farmers, and regional communities from mandates and restrictions imposed by Melbourne. Tim opposed vaccine mandates and stood for liberty throughout the pandemic.

Prior to his political work, Tim worked as accountant helping people minimize their tax bill and avoid taxation pitfalls. He grew up in Southern New South Wales on a family farm and is married with 2 children.

Tim Molesworth

Northern Victoria Region

Tim is the sixth of seven children, his parents are Christian. As a child Tim always had a strong passion for justice and advocacy. After assisting his father in running a cleaning business, he has since entered rural occupations such as fencing, snake catching, and livestock management. He does not allow his dyslexia to deter him.

As a Christian his understanding of Scripture is that each individual is personally accountable to God, not government, and that in our secular society we must allow expression of personal values and convictions, without impeding others from exercising those same rights.

As a Libertarian he believes the role of government is to be accountable to the people, not the other way round. Tim would advocate for responsible gun owners and shooters, whenever they are attacked for political purposes.

Tim is married, with two young children. Consideration of their future, along with that of the wider community, is a major motivation for his political activism. Although Tim had never previously contemplated entering politics, he fears for the future of our nation if we continue on our present course of government by bullying, threats, and silencing of genuine discussion and debate.

Maya Tesa

North Eastern Metro Region

Maya Tesa is a passionate advocate for human rights and has worked tirelessly supporting local non-for-profits and charities. Maya migrated from Lebanon at the age of 6. At the age of 8 she moved to the electorate of Bulleen and attended the local schools. Maya married her husband Robert in 2004 and has four beautiful children who all attend local schools in the electorate of Eltham. A successful business owner, she understands that it is small business that keeps Australia’s economy growing. Over the years she has seen how over regulation and welfare dependency has stifled Australia’s growth and ability to be self-sustainable. While politicians continue to play the blame game, Maya’s aim is to be a real voice of experience for her community and to hold the government accountable for the ongoing challenges facing Victorians.

“Australia is at a turning point and having honest, transparent, and accountable government is what is going to lead Australia to greater growth and prosperity”.

Josh Lay

North Eastern Metro Region

Josh Lay is running for the North-Eastern Metropolitan region in the Legislative Council. Being raised in Gippsland before moving to the suburbs, Josh aims to bring a fresh perspective into local politics. After spending nearly ten years working within industry and completing two trades, Josh has a real connection with the blue-collar working class, a traditionally underrepresented class which he aims to represent in parliament.

Josh is a passionate member of the Liberal Democrats. Having spent many years personally studying politics, he has come to believe that Victoria is in need of a rekindling of values such as freedom of choice, freedom of speech and deregulation of the market economy. Although young, Josh aspires to change the face of politics within his home state, seeking to help remove the shackles of state debt and government overreach, and return Victoria to a prosperous future.

Anthony Cursio

Western Metro Region

Anthony is a born and bred Victorian, having lived 30+ years in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. A commercial banker who specialises in manufacturing and wholesale clients but rose through the ranks starting his finance career in the Contact Centre. Anthony is used to starting at the bottom and working his way to the top. His very first job was at the age of 14 working as a cleaner to provide himself with things that his single mother could not.

Anthony has more than a decade of experience in retail and also grew up working in a family business that started from the kitchen table.

He is a passionate advocate for small business and believes in encouraging more Australians to become entrepreneurs. Believing that small businesses drive the economy and as such, is a strong believer in lower taxes, small government, less regulation/bureaucracy, greater accountability, more personal freedoms, liberties and above all else free speech.

Watch Anthony's interview on Discernable podcast here: Anthony Cursio: Australians are realising the importance of freedom - Discernable®

Liam Roche

Western Metro Region

Liam Roche is seeking to represent his home of Western Metro. He's a Security Professional with many years’ experience working in Cooperate environments and the Transportation of Valuable goods. He found a love for politics through the exploits of the first Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm, and some sound bites from US Senator Dr Ron Paul.

During some state imposed down time (mandates) he read about libertarianism and economics to better his knowledge of the challenges that the job of governance brings into the lives of those who live with the consequences of government action.

Liam is a firm believer in using the best technology to power our economy, not just the technologies that are in vogue, and to get the monkey that is government off the backs of ordinary Australians for “having a go”, whether they be a worker or business owner. He believes that all persons have a right to their own body and holds that they are best placed to make decisions about what they put into it, and that those rights extend to all property they may or may not wish to own.

Julia McGrath

Western Victoria Region

Julia grew up in Creswick and, after several years interstate working in legal practice, has returned to Ballarat to raise a family. While working in the Administrative Tribunal, Julia worked on a range of matters relating to public servants constraining the autonomy, rights and privacy of individuals.

Julia’s watershed moment came during her involvement in a landmark personal liberty case in which a person was unlawfully detained, causing the Supreme Court to issue the writ of Habeas Corpus. This, together with the findings of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT, cemented Julia’s concerns that if left unchecked, those employed to serve us can come to regard themselves as masters. Naturally, the pandemic response has exacerbated these concerns.

Julia believes government should provide a limited range of core functions which serves people to create a safe and civilised society. She believes this begins by treating individuals as rational actors, capable of exercising judgement and choice according to their own values.

Paul Barker

Western Victoria Region

Paul's working life straight out of school started with various operational and training roles with the Royal Australian Air Force. He understands the plight of hard-working, blue-collar Australians who have lacked true representation for a long time—he has conversed with many throughout the more than 2 million kilometres he has driven in trucks around Australia as just one part of his experience in the transport and logistics sector. He has always been quite adventurous, starting out his adventure tourism journey as a ropes instructor. Years later a passion for skydiving evolved. This set him on a new path working in the adventure tourism industry as a skydive instructor. Along with his mastery of land and sky, Paul’s interests politically have tended more toward the sea, as his most recent role has been that of an elected Surf Coast Shire Councilor.

Paul is sick of the runaway debt and spending of successive governments that contribute to high taxes and intergenerational debt that our children will be liable to pay for. He will work hard to rein in this irresponsible fiscal management so we can have a more prosperous future.

Paul Silverberg

Northern Metro Region

Paul Silverberg firmly believes in people, and that trusting individuals with a high level of personal responsibility and accountability is the key to having a happy, successful and prosperous society. Having been born in the USSR, and being able to observe first-hand the inevitable collapse of the system that relies on high government interference with an individual’s decision-making process, Paul is aiming to use that experience to ensure a similar situation does not happen in Victoria.

Looking at recent governments’ continuous encroachment on all personal lives and businesses, this danger has become more pronounced. Paul has decided to run to oppose this very dangerous trend.

Paul first involved himself on the political scene in 2020 when he narrowly missed out on being elected as one of the councillors in the Melbourne City Council election for the LDP. If elected to the Legislative Council, Paul has set the priority areas as: cutting red tape, reducing limits on people’s choices, and addressing the legislation and decision-making processes that result in poor economic performance for the state and for Victoria’s residents.

Rachel Versteegen

Northern Metro Region

Rachel is a born and bred Melbournian. She loves the city, the cultural diversity, the food and watching her beloved pies win at the hallowed turf of the MCG. For most of her adult life she has lived and worked in the Northern suburbs.

Always politically engaged she only turned to the Liberal Democrats when observing the authoritarian rule by Dan Andrews and the consequences of his decisions in the last two and a half years. After hearing David Limbrick speak, during the pandemic she investigated the Liberal Democrats and decided freedom and liberty is where her politics lie.

Having worked in the early childhood setting for the last 10 years, she has observed firsthand the ever-growing policies and procedures that need to be followed, placing an unnecessary burden on teachers within the sector. Early childhood teachers need to be doing what they do best: educating our children, not mindless administration tasks.

For society and the economy to flourish we must embrace and allow individuals to create their own destiny with minimal government interference. If we follow that, the future for Victoria will be bright.

Matthew Ford

Southern Metro Region

Matthew Ford is a long-term member of the party and is excited to represent our growing base of passionate members and supporters. Having previously stood in State, Federal, and Local elections, Matthew will provide a passionate and articulate presentation of the libertarian policies and values in the Legislative Council, which he sees as in dire need of sensible and determined representation.

Through his employment at a major company within the tourism industry, Matthew has seen firsthand the devastating impacts of unnecessary government overreach throughout the pandemic. He believes it is time that government policy once again frees Victorians to live their own lives and make choices for themselves. Matthew is looking forward to a successful campaign and ultimately joining his fellow victorious Liberal Democrats candidates in Parliament and providing the leadership that Victorians so sorely need.

David Segal

Southern Metro Region

After joining the party in September 2021, David ran as a federal candidate for the seat of Goldstein in the 2022 election. He is now running as a candidate for the Legislative Council in Victoria. He has embraced the party’s principles and philosophies which form the foundation of their policy positions. Fiscally conservative, but socially progressive he believes that the Liberal Democrats should be the destination party of choice for all disaffected voters. The morphing of the two major parties and their failure to provide policy differentiation from each other, means that voters have to turn to minor parties such as the Liberal Democrats to provide accountability and opposition to those in power.

In terms of government spending (and its impact on cost of living), energy, and the management of Covid and health issues, the Liberal Democrats have policies that provide real solutions that would impact all Victorians. David wholeheartedly believes that the Liberal Democrats are a genuine party of real change.

Rob McCathie

Eastern Victoria Region

Rob McCathie’s adult life has been dominantly spent in Victoria’s East, working in I.T. as a computer systems administrator and consultant for small-medium enterprise.

Operating out of Pakenham for many years, Rob built relationships with businesses throughout the eastern region - including in Nar Nar Goon, Bunyip, Drouin, Tooradin, Warragul and Morwell - and has gained a strong understanding of the challenges they face.

Rob has always been an advocate for freedom of expression and has stood against censorship. The government attracted his ire in 2008 when they attempted to bring in mandatory internet censorship and his interest in politics grew from there. As the years went on he became increasingly concerned with rising authoritarianism from both of Australia’s major political parties, including the unjustified red-tape small businesses are burdened with. This led Rob to become involved with the Liberal Democrats – the only reliable small-government party.

Send Rob to Parliament and the people of Eastern Victoria will have a representative they can rely on to always fight for less government and more freedom.

Angus Ward

Eastern Victoria Region

Angus Ward is a sixth generation Australian who works in his family business that has been family owned since the 1800’s. He has a strong passion for looking out for his local community through charity and voluntaryism, and making his community a better place for all.

Having served on both the State and National Executive of the Liberal Democrats, Angus has spent years as a volunteer contributing to the Liberal Democrats and forming communities around the idea that “over himself, over his own mind and body; the individual is sovereign” ~ John Stuart Mill.

He will continue to serve his community by always advocating for keeping more of your money in your pocket (not the government’s), respecting the rights and decisions of Victorians, and championing Nuclear energy for a cleaner and more prosperous Victoria.

Legislative Assembly Candidates

Lance Smart

Albert Park

Lance is married with three daughters. He is an engineer who has worked in automotive and aerospace manufacturing all his life. This has given him a logical and evidence-based approach to the issues of the world.

For many years he has seen the deterioration in Australian politics and has long wanted to do something about it by getting involved in the political process, but being a member of one of the major parties was not an option as they don’t represent the will of the public. Most important is for governments to get out of the way and let people do what they know is best for the community. The extreme measures used to deal with Covid strengthened the need to act and try to improve the future for not only his own family but everyone in the state.

His vision is for increased personal responsibility, respect for individual choices, less control of the population with economic improvement through less taxation, and reduced regulation to allow individuals and all-sized businesses to grow and prosper.

Michael Abelman

Caulfield

Michael Abelman was raised in Melbourne, and has been a registered pharmacist in Victoria for 40 years. As the son of WW2 refugees, Michael understands why liberty is absolutely fundamental, and knows how devastating the loss of liberty can be.

Michael has been a long-time supporter of drug treatment reform. More recently he has also fostered a keen interest in government policy, procedure, accountability, and transparency (or lack thereof).

He has been a keen observer of the shady deals, politics and performance, of the major parties over the last decade—and especially the last 2 years—which has motivated him to take action and change the way we are being governed. We are not economic statistics or pawns to be played in a game of power. We are individuals entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—our government should allow us to go after these with compassion and empathy, not unnecessary mandates and personal restrictions.

Chrysten Abraham

Frankston

Chrysten Abraham is the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Frankston this state election. Chrysten is a passionate and enthusiastic candidate who has dedicated her life to a career in Human Resources, as the conduit between people and management. Chrysten sees that the communication between the people and government is abysmal and there is a genuine need for change.

As a Frankston resident, she feels a responsibility to represent her community and be a part of the change that is greatly required in government. People should have the opportunity to vote for someone like themselves, that means having people like them run as candidates.

As an Employment Relations Adviser, Chrysten has seen firsthand how overcomplicated employment law is, and just how difficult it is for small businesses to stay afloat. Chrysten will work tirelessly to have less government intervention in our lives and businesses, and more accountability around government spending. A large portion of her focus will be to see Frankston’s entertainment and recreation sites flourish.

Chrysten says: ‘As a 25-year-old, I am old enough to know there needs to be a change in government and young enough to believe I can be the difference I want to see’.

Richard Peppard

Hawthorn

The Liberal Democrats’ candidate for Hawthorn is Richard Peppard. Richard is a neurologist, living and working in Hawthorn, who values science, the environment and good sense.

When you’re in a hole, stop digging! Richard hopes to get us out of this hole that the Andrews’ government has dug through overreach, debt, corruption, capital overruns, and energy folly.

During the pandemic, Victorian government restrictions were arbitrary, divisive, and extreme by international standards. The lockdown harms were not considered and prior epidemic policy. Having experienced authoritarian big government, it’s time to turn to the LibDems, a party with small government and individual freedom in its DNA.

Teal and Green radical activism make impossible demands that extend government interference against any orderly development of electricity production. The major parties kowtow to them. The social, economic, and environmental consequences will soon be dire. The LibDems stand for sensible, restrained government that allows young and old to prosper.

Max Payne

Lara

Modern problems require modern solutions. For too long we have trusted career politicians to guide and outright control our lives. That is why Max Payne is running as the Liberal Democrats candidate for Lara – he wants to reduce the government’s impact on your life.

The working-class district of Lara has long lacked a voice with the initiative and tenacity to truly represent their interests. Max will resist the major party march towards costly energy and infrastructure policy that taxpayers have long suffered under, while advocating for greater individual liberties, greater transparency in government, and ending pointless nanny-state restrictions.

Through excessive Covid restrictions and mandates, infrastructure blowouts, a collapsing health system, runaway debt, high cost of living and a housing crisis, the major parties have failed to govern responsibly or present a positive alternative vision, Max will fight to ensure that Victoria is governed more by its people, and less by its Premier.

Stephen Matulec

Narre Warren North

Stephen Matulec is running as a Liberal Democrats candidate for the seat of Narre Warren North at the upcoming State election and has lived in the area for his entire life. He is a young, passionate libertarian who is currently studying politics at university. His most important issue is removing red tape for small businesses, and giving them the liberty to achieve and have a greater chance for success in a free market. He believes in keeping the government as minimal as possible and allowing individuals to make their own choices. Stephen believes both taxes and laws on social issues are too excessive and need to be greatly reduced to keep the government out of our wallet and our lives.

Stephen has decided to run in this election due to observing an overreach in government powers throughout the pandemic and a lack of opposition in the state parliament. He is extremely passionate about ending Covid alarmism and stopping excessive government spending in order to stop the debt from rising. Stephen is focused on fixing the rising cost of living, protecting free speech, decentralising education, and ending the war on drugs.

Christine Skrobo

Narre Warren South

Christine Skrobo was born and raised in the South-Eastern suburbs of Melbourne and is the Liberal Democrats candidate for the seat of Narre Warren South. Her motivation to run as a candidate this election arose from seeing an increase in government overreach over the past couple of years and a need for additional voices for liberty in state parliament.

Christine is passionate about maximising individual liberties, minimising the role of government, lowering taxes, and giving small business owners the freedom to thrive. She believes bringing back fiscal responsibility is key to addressing high-priority issues such as the cost of living and excessive government debt.

Christine is committed to ensuring the people of Narre Warren South have their concerns heard and their views represented in parliament. She believes it is essential to hold the major parties accountable and ensure they do what they were elected to do which is to serve the people.

Julian Fidge

Ovens Valley

Julian Fidge is honoured to be running as the Liberal Democrats candidate for Ovens Valley in this important election. He firmly believes the government is too big and too expensive, and aims to convince voters that we would be better off with lower taxes and smaller government.

Julian is a local GP in Wangaratta, a local CFA lieutenant, a second generation farmer, and the President of a local karate club. Julian leads his life in service of his local community, and has had a decade-long involvement in local politics. By combining his knowledge of the needs of the community in harmony with state-wide matters, Julian aims to bring his considerable expertise to the parliamentary table in the hope of curbing the government’s rampant spending and expansion.

Julian looks forward to debating policies with the other candidates.