Dave Hughes to campaign for Liberals in Victorian election

Enraged comedian Dave Hughes is taking his anti-Labor rants from social media to the party faithful and will appear alongside Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson at the Liberals’ Western Victoria Region campaign launch in Geelong on Sunday.

Hughes, who has become a prominent and prolific critic of the Victorian government, the federal government, corruption in the building industry and proposed changes to the tax system among many other gripes, maintains he does not have political ambitions and is not being paid for his involvement in the Liberal launch, but he is backing Wilson in the November state election.

His celebrity appearance at Sunday’s campaign launch alongside Wilson is the latest step in his political evolution. His face even appears on the invitation to the event alongside Wilson’s.

“The more I see about what’s been going on here [in Victoria] over the last decade or longer, it just can’t go on, and I think the Liberals are our best bet right now and to get in there and just stop the f---ing corruption, basically,” Hughes told The Age.

“So that’s what I want. I’m not joining the Liberals, I’m not being a member of the Liberal Party.

“People are accusing me of taking money. I’m not taking a cent. I’m deliberately not taking a cent for any of this. I’ve had people, business people who are sick to death of what’s happening say, ‘I’ll back you, I’ll finance you’.

“I say, ‘I don’t need the money. I don’t want the money’. I don’t want to owe any vested interests favours. I just want the corruption to stop, I want the waste to stop, so I’m trying to help. That’s all I’m doing.”

Hughes said an eventual tilt at a seat did not interest him.

“I really don’t want to run for politics. I don’t want to go to Canberra. I don’t want to go to f---ing Spring Street. I don’t want to sit in there in those endless f---ing gab fests that they do, but I just want corruption to stop,” he said.

“I want all levels of politics to realise you haven’t won Powerball because you’ve got elected, you haven’t won Powerball because you’re in the public service. You are actually spending the money – which has been earned by honest people who have not circumvented the taxation system and have decided to pay their fair share of tax – and you have an obligation to honour their hard work by not wasting their money.”

The Liberals have eagerly embraced Hughes’ emergence as a Labor critic and vocal warrior against wasteful government spending. Federal Liberal leader Angus Taylor met up with Hughes for coffee in Melbourne in July, and Hughes met with Wilson about six weeks ago as his social media missives started to gain mainstream attention.

“I’m happy to meet up with people,” he said.

Sunday is going to be a busy day for Hughes; he will arrive back in Melbourne in the morning after a stand-up gig for his Cooked show in Cowra on Saturday night and plans to attend the first half of the Carlton versus Western Bulldogs game at Marvel Stadium before driving to Geelong to the Liberal launch and “hopefully, you know, contribute to getting a change of government in Victoria”.

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