Diane Teasdale is a staple on the Shepparton political fixture, having run for a variety of far-right political parties across the three levels of government.
However, Ms Teasdale, 74, indicated she would likely be handing out how-to-vote cards for the final time on Saturday, November 26, as she runs for the Freedom Party at the Victorian election.
Ms Teasdale said she knew she was not likely to win, with either current member Suzanna Sheed, Liberal candidate Cheryl Hammer or Nationals candidate Kim O’Keeffe likely to be elected.
However, she wanted to keep the b******* in Spring St honest over vaccine mandates and lockdowns, which she was expecting more of should Daniel Andrews be re-elected.
“I didn’t intend to run,” she said.
“But we have got what I call a freedom movement here and they’re an interesting sort of people and all sorts of people, but I said nobody’s standing up here, the Freedom Party is standing up and we should support them."
Last year, Ms Teasdale and a group of unvaccinated community members held their own carols by candlelight and Santa photos, as she said they were not allowed to participate in council-run events.
It was the same crowd that had driven down for ‘freedom protests’ in Melbourne, with Ms Teasdale saying about 20 people made their way down each weekend and about 50 heading down for larger protests.
Cafe Lockout visited Shepparton, with about 400 people attending a protest in the city and a few hundred more at another protest outside the office of then Federal Member for Nicholls Damian Drum.
It fired her up.
“This issue isn’t going to finish at the election,” Ms Teasdale said.
“This control over people is going to get worse if we don’t fight it.
“It’s not just on the vaccination issue, it’s on all issues.
“I don’t think I’ll win.
“My preferences may influence the outcome but people need someone to vote for.”
She said mandates and vaccines were her main policy issues along with ensuring water stayed in the district and amending the Local Government Act to give councillors more power and council chief executives less control.
During last week’s candidate’s forum, Ms Teasdale said she didn’t think there was a worker shortage and has long said Australia should slash immigration
She also wanted to find “people with brains” to come in and fix issues such as the bypass and health.
Asked where she would find those people with brains, Ms Teasdale spoke about her father and grandfather’s experiences as engineers.
“I grew up in a family of people who looked for answers, who used their brain, who went back to what’s been done and asked can we just push it a little bit further,” she said.
“Today, there are a lot of good brains out there but we’ve lost that excitement which was around when I was young.
“Learning and experiencing was encouraged, today young people are like ‘don’t do that, it’ll upset someone’.”