Targeting corruption: Nickee Freeman and Mark Jones are running for the Angry Victorians Party, which is a branch of the Australian Values Party.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
When you meet the Angry Victorians Party candidates for north-east Victoria, Mark Jones and Nickee Freeman, they’re anything but angry.
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A handshake and small talk belies the name they’re running under in their aim to gain seats in the Victorian Upper House on November 26, with the Angry Victorians Party the state branch of the Australian Values Party.
Ms Freeman is a disability support worker who lives in Tatura. She ran with the Greens in the May Federal Election before a falling out over vaccine mandates.
Mr Jones was born in Mt Isa, but has lived in Wodonga for more than 30 years after moving around with the military.
He said after 33 years working in agriculture, he finally reached a point where he was “a little bit disillusioned” with politicians, who he said “seem to be above the law”.
‘Set of values’: Nickee Freeman and Mark Jones are running for the Angry Victorians Party.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
“If you've got no accountability, then there's nothing that really drives you to make an educated, informed decision,” he said.
Mr Jones said he wanted to see the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission strengthened so it could compel witnesses to come forward.
In their conversation with the News, strengthening IBAC and ending the last remaining vaccine mandate on healthcare workers were the only concrete policies Mr Jones and Ms Freeman put forward despite repeated questions about what specifically the party planned to do should it gain seats in the upper house.
Mr Jones said the party had a “set of values” they would run past any potential coalition partner in the upper house, which came back to “empowering individuals”.
“So you’re not taking any power away from people and their freedom of choice ... making sure the things that really matter — honesty and integrity, along those lines — and what would be best for the people we’re there to serve,” he said.
Opposed to vaccine mandates: Nickee Freeman and Mark Jones.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Despite the name, no issue got the Angry Victorian Party candidates angry bar the discussion of mandates.
“Having lockdowns in your house for people who are healthy. They said they’re ‘unforseen circumstances’ and ‘we’ve never seen anything about it’,” Mr Jones said.
“There was a 90-page document about our response to Swine Flu, and the difference between that and now was people made decisions early on, already made significant decisions which affected people’s lives and they had to admit they were wrong or keep it going.”
Mr Jones said there were thousands of people who could be working in jobs “that we need filled”, despite mandates having been lifted for nearly every industry outside healthcare.
Ms Freeman, who resigned from the Greens ahead of the Federal election in May despite being preselected to run in Nicholls, said she still wasn’t vaccinated.
“I’m not an anti-vaxxer,” she said.
“As far as the mandates go, that smashed me — at 54 years old I invested a lot in my health and my career. I refused to go on the dole, no disrespect to anyone who did, but I said ‘nup, I want to work’.”
Mr Jones and Ms Freeman said they wanted to end ambulance ramping, end sales of water to overseas buyers and link water and land back together, create more housing supply by potentially placing restrictions on foreigners owning property and increase energy security by boosting production of coal seam gas, but did not say how they would achieve these goals.
Ms Freeman clarified fracking was off the cards after interrupting Mr Jones to say she didn’t agree with using more gas.
She said while she used to use gas in her home she had now tried to remove it due to the environmental impact.
