Provided by PPP co-convenors Ann Byrne and John Spierings
Progressive Port Phillip did not stand its own candidates or fund any individual candidate campaigns in the 2024 Council election, despite some circulating claims.
Progressive Port Phillip did mount a community effort centred around:
- Identifying shared principles for a fairer, safer and more sustainable community summarised in a policy framework that candidates could affirm and use to guide their decision-making if elected; and
- Then advising voters about candidate responses to the framework to help inform their voting choices.
Our voting guide recommendations included a wide range of candidates, some who were members of political parties and were endorsed by them, and some who ran independently.
For full transparency about our campaign funding, Progressive Port Phillip received just under $22,000 ($21.977.58) in campaign donations between 1 January and 11 November 2024 – all from individuals.
- 35 donated up to $100;
- 14 donated between $101 and $1000; and
- 3 donated between $1001 and $5,000.
Donated funds were used to:
- Organise and run four community forums to highlight key local issues during the election campaign: housing, re-building community, community safety, climate action;
- Run a social media campaign including blogs and opinion pieces alerting voters to issues in the lead up to the election; and
- Print and letterbox two leaflets across Port Phillip, all hand delivered by volunteers to around 60,000 households. The first leaflet identified key local issues and outlined what was at stake at the election, including the threat to council services of pursuing a rates’ freeze. The second was a voting guide for each ward that alerted voters both to candidates who had affirmed the progressive policy framework and also to candidates whose policies were clearly problematic.
Ann Byrne and John Spierings
Co-Conveners
