A FINAL WORD ON THE HEALTH AUSTRALIA PARTY

By Dr Isaac Golden

Dear HAP supporters,

Many of you know that I co-founded HAP in 2015 and have worked in various roles both Federally and in the Victorian State branch. Until recently, HAP was managed by dedicated volunteers who gave up massive amounts of time and energy and worked co-operatively. The National and State executives comprised both women and men who were unselfish, and there for the greater good.
The last election HAP contested was on 26/11/22 in Victoria, and the Victorian branch was the only remaining officially registered branch.
Early in 2023 the Victorian State Executive brought on three new members, all women, two of whom had been candidates in the 2022 election. however, one resigned after some months, and the third new member also stepped back from day-to-day activities because she felt unable to work with the other new Exec member, although she kept the website and membership records running, and I remained as State Treasurer and lodged the 2022/23 accounts accordingly. The goal was to give the 2 previous candidates a chance to volunteer and help run the Party, whilst injecting new energy.

It is important to note that I personally did not appoint any of the new Executive members as has been claimed elsewhere, they were appointed by the Executive.

As required by legislation, the VEC (Victorian Electoral Council) scheduled a membership audit in late 2023 and the candidate who joined in 2023 said she would run the audit. I have been involved in AEC and VEC and WAEC membership full audits and they are demanding undertakings involving co-operation and hundreds of hours of work. But the 2023 audit was different – we only had to validate 50 people.

This audit failed, and we realised that we simply did not have the resources required to successfully complete a full audit (an option offered by the VEC), so we made the decision to gracefully retire HAP , leaving our policies on the website in case others would find them useful.

However, the new Executive member decided this was an opportunity to try to take over control of HAP, and the VEC rules allowed one final chance for a full audit. It should be noted that this new member only joined HAP just prior to the 2022 election because the VEC audit of her own Party had failed. It should also be remembered that two female members of the Executive had stepped aside in 2023 due to being unable to work with her. This person has limited history with HAP and has no right to claim the HAP name or its reputation. Defamatory and misleading statements made by this person following the failure of the 2024 brief audit confirmed this.

We deeply regret that the history of HAP has been tarnished by such unnecessary hostility, name-calling and unpleasantness. Most of you know full well this is NOT what HAP stood for.

We will provide updates on the HAP website and if you have any concerns or questions, please direct them to: executive@healthaustraliaparty.com.au

Respectfully,
Dr Isaac Golden