Not published!
In the following letter, AOGPN Chair Ken Coghill confirms that the following letter (responding to a string of letters published in the Sunday Age) complaining about the flood of mail from Josh has not been published:
AEC figures on Liberal fund-raising in Kooyong explain the extra-ordinary swamping of voters with targeted personal letters, large numbers of out-sized advertising boards, mobile signs towed by bicycles and trucks, and many many “field officers” paid $25/hour to hand-out campaign materials (Greg McKie, Graham Devries, Tony Healy & Ron Dretzke, Letters, Sunday Age, 12 May 2019).
Electoral Commission figures show that the Liberals’ Kooyong 200 Club raised $814,550 in the first two years following the last election – from undisclosed donors. It is reasonable to estimate they raised over $200,000 in still-unreported donations since 1 July 2018, giving Josh Frydenberg a war chest of well over $1 million.
Josh has a massive campaigning advantage over all other candidates for Kooyong, with the possible exception of the United Australia (Clive Palmer) candidate. For example, only Josh has been able to afford the estimated $100,000 per mail-out to almost all voters (curiously excepting activists such as myself).
“This gross distortion of democracy demands major political finance reform including caps of campaign spending” notes Coghill.