Candidate Andrew Kilmartin preferenced independent Dianne Colbert over other candidates in Saturday’s election, putting her second on his how-to-vote card. Labor candidate Michaela Settle was placed sixth and the Greens candidate Linda Zibell seventh, leaving Victorian Socialist candidate Jane McKendrick last.

Ms Colbert has run as an Australian Christian candidate in past federal and state elections, and has also stood for City of Ballarat council elections. Her election flyer came to constituents enfolded in a pamphlet extolling the reader to ‘stop harming our children’ and was critical of the ‘Safe Schools’ program. It was endorsed by Yvonne Gentle of Rise Up Australia.

In December 2017 Ms Colbert had her Mental Health First Aid Australia (MHFAA) accreditation suspended after it was revealed she had posted videos describing methods of ‘recovery’ from homosexuality via prayer on her YouTube channel.

The Courier understands an investigation into the matter is now concluded. Ms Colbert is no longer accredited on the MHFAA website as a trainer or instructor; however her Linked In account was still listing the accreditation on Thursday. In an interview Ms Colbert acknowledged to The Courier the information was incorrect and removed it on Thursday evening. She said her lawyer had advised her that in order to continue as an MHFAA counsellor, she would have to acknowledge ‘gender fluidity’ in her work, a position Ms Colbert found untenable because of her beliefs and experience.

She has also published a lengthy defence of convicted English criminal ‘Tommy Robinson’ (real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon), the far-right provocateur facing contempt of court charges in the United Kingdom. Ms Colbert told The Courier ‘Robinson’ had been misrepresented in the mainstream media and that she had listened to many recordings of interviews with the activist.

She said ‘Robinson’ spoke out on behalf of rape victims that weren’t getting justice, including women that had been raped by both Muslim and Christian men. She said the convictions recorded against ‘Robinson’ were the result of persistent police harassment, and the reports in the mainstream media were coloured by bias. Ms Colbert suggested people would be better served looking for ‘alternative’ sources of information at times.

Mr Kilmartin told The Courier he had no control in the choice of preferences, and referred questions to Liberal HQ. He denied having spoken at all to Ms Colbert about preferences. Ms Colbert said she ‘might have’ spoken to Mr Kilmartin about a preference deal, but said she spoke to many people.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy said he had no idea who the candidate was and did not expect preferences to play a role in the seat, expressing the hope the Liberal candidate would win clearly.

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