The Liberal Party’s candidate for the seat of Isaacs has admitted he lives more than 20 kilometres away from the address he told the Australian Electoral Commission he resides at, potentially putting him in breach of Commonwealth law.
Candidate Robbie Beaton, who is pitching to voters as a “long-time local business owner”, claims in his electoral enrolment and Liberal Party preselection forms that he lives at the address of the Bridge Hotel in Mordialloc, which is in Melbourne’s southern suburbs in the Labor-held electorate of Isaacs. He actually lives in inner-eastern Camberwell.
Robbie Beaton
Beaton, who once owned the pub, sold it in October 2021, before he was preselected and almost half a year before the deadline for changing voting address ahead of the May election.
The former long-time publican initially told The Age he continued to occasionally spend nights at a small apartment in the pub that he used after finishing work late. However, he then admitted he lives in Camberwell and had not spent any nights at the hotel since at least October.
“I do live in Camberwell, yes,” he said.
Beaton has owned the Camberwell home since 2002, but said he hoped, irrespective of the election result, to move to Isaacs, which stretches from Moorabbin in the north to Carrum in the south.
Mark Dreyfus in Parliament with Anthony Albanese.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Isaacs is held by Labor shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus by a margin of slightly more than 6 per cent, the figure the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) uses to define a marginal seat.
In a subsequent written statement, Beaton said: “My family owned that hotel for 38 years, and I worked there for the last 20 years until its recent sale. This is an honest mistake and had no intent to mislead anyone.”
According to the AEC website, “enrolment fraud occurs if an elector makes a false claim for enrolment, for example using a false name or address.”
“It is an offence to give false or misleading documents or information to a Commonwealth Officer in purported compliance with a Commonwealth law. The penalty specified in the Criminal Code for these offences is 12 months imprisonment.”
Beaton is the second consecutive Liberal candidate for Isaacs to gain unwanted media attention before an election. In 2019, Liberal candidate Jeremy Hearn was disendorsed for an online rant that attacked Muslims as people of “bad character” who were plotting to kill and enslave other Australians.
Beaton’s website states he is “passionate about giving back to the local community”.
“He has been involved with many local groups, including the Mordialloc Traders Association and the Chelsea Football Netball Club. In his spare time Robbie is an avid gardener and beekeeper. With these strong connections to the local community, Robbie is proud to be your Liberal candidate at the upcoming federal election.”
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