I can’t put into words how enraged and heartbroken I am that I must do this, but I am going to have to withdraw from the election campaign.
Not getting the party registration done in time was a huge problem, but I fully intended to keep going as an independent, until I hit a citizenship question that might make me ineligible to be a Member of Parliament.
It’s been a frantic week, but I’m told we might not get the confirmation we need in time to get the nomination done before the closing date.
I’ve struggled with it all week, but as much as I don’t want to, the only ethical choice is to withdraw. If I keep going, I will end up spending thousands of your donation dollars trying to speed up a process that may not work.
Lack of time was always a problem. I tried to do in three months what should have taken at least a year. The best thing to do now is make sure I have that year and more for the next election.
What now?
My plan now is to finish the party registration after the election (AEC can’t process registrations during the election) and gather all the documents I need to finalise the citizenship issue.
Everything will be finished before the end of this year, and I can start planning for the next election.
There’s just under $10,000 left in donations. Obviously, anyone who donated and wants a refund, just let me know and I will send it straight back to you.
I will use the rest to finish the registration process and set up all the digital infrastructure we will need for the next election. If there is anything left over, it will go into a holding account ready to start the campaign for next time. If for any reason I can run again, everything will be ready for someone else to take over and run a good, well-planned campaign to put an advocate for women’s rights and gender equity into our parliament.
I want to say thank you and I am so sorry to everyone who supported me. I really did think I could do it, but I promise we will get them next time.
Jane Gilmore
