Increase in campaign funding and upcoming opportunities

Only three weeks until voting begins. This email provides a reminder about upcoming opportunities to get your message out to voters through an email newsletter and participate in candidate training, as well as information on the increase in campaign funding available to candidates.

Email newsletter

Candidates are able to include a message to enrolled voters in a fortnightly email sent by the Commission. This newsletter is sent to all voters who have consented to receive communications from candidates.

The first email newsletter will be distributed this Thursday 29 August 2019.

The newsletter is a valuable opportunity to distribute messages directly to voters in your region. This could include communicating messages about what you stand for and why people should vote for you, providing details on your travel plans for campaigning throughout your electorate, or an upcoming event that you are holding.

Participation is optional. To contribute please send your content to candidates@victreatyadvancement.org.au by Tuesday.

Content must by no more than 200 words and in a Microsoft Word compatible format (.doc .docx .txt). You may include a photo in .jpg, .jpeg, .png or .bmp format, high resolution, named with your first and last name.

Content for the first newsletter must be received by COB Tuesday 27 August 2019.

Upcoming Email Newsletter distribution dates:
Deadline: Monday 9 September 2019
Distributed: Thursday 12 September 2019

Deadline: Monday 30 September 2019
Distributed: Thursday 3 October 2019

Deadline: Monday 14 October 2019
Distributed: Thursday 17 October 2019

Campaign financial support increased to $1,000

The Commission is pleased to announce that financial support has been increased from $500 to $1,000 per candidate to assist with your campaigning. You may choose to allocate you funding towards printing of campaign materials, social media advertising and travel expenses.

Information on accessing each of these options (and applicable sub-limits) is available in the updated campaign support guide which can be accessed here or by calling us.

You can access this support now if you have submitted all required paperwork to complete your nomination application.

Please send your requests through to candidates@victreatyadvancement.org.au or contact 1800 TREATY (873 289) option 3.

Campaign Training

Thank you to all the candidates who have already attended campaign training. There is still time to access free campaign training delivered by the Victorian Trades Hall Council and Original Power.

This training is an opportunity for you to develop important campaigning skills from election experts. The training may help you to develop a successful campaign strategy to get your message out to community and gain votes in the election.

Training sessions will be run in each voting region subject to demand from candidates. The Commission will be in contact with candidates who are based regionally to discuss their interest in campaign training and will contact you again as more dates are announced.

Training content, including recorded sessions, will also be available online.

Contact details of Campaign Training facilitators

Campaign training facilitators are also available to answer questions about campaigning and key messaging (including for those that haven’t attended the training). Their contact details are below:

Edie Shepard edie@originalpower.org.au
Danae Bosler dbosler@vthc.org.au
Nadia Montague nmontague@vthc.org.au
David Unwin dunwin@vthc.org.au

Contact

If you wish to register for future training sessions, or to access other candidate support, please don't hesitate to call us at 1800 TREATY (87 32 89) option 3 or email candidates@victreatyadvancement.org.au. We are here to answer your questions.