A judge has labelled a petition brought by an independent candidate against former Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy as an “exercise in vanity” as he threw out the case.
David Vincent, who ran as an independent candidate against Guy in last year’s state election, filed a petition in the Supreme Court to remove him as the member for Bulleen and instead give himself the seat.
He came last in the race for Bulleen, securing 0.5 per cent of the vote compared to Guy’s 48.06 percent.
Vincent, who represented himself in the proceedings, also wanted to be given the role of speaker in the Legislative Assembly or president in the upper house.
He claimed Guy was not fit or proper to sit in parliament and said the petition was a public interest application to improve state parliament.
Vincent wanted the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission to produce documents from its investigation into Guy and indicate whether charges would be recommended.
The Victorian Electoral Commission referred Mr Guy to the corruption watchdog in November after it was alleged he tried to circumvent political donation laws along with his former chief of staff Mitch Catlin.
Justice John Dixon dismissed the petition on Tuesday, finding it was groundless and doomed to fail.
“The petition is an abuse of process, foredoomed to fail. It was an exercise in vanity,” he wrote in written reasons.
Vincent’s claims that Guy had committed “malfeasance in public office” and voters acted under duress in electing him were scandalous and unsupported, the judge said.
“I have concluded that the petition is not based on any recognised legal ground, and allegations made in the petition are irrelevant, inappropriate, scandalous, or incapable of proof or substantiation in some other acceptable way,” he said.
“It is therefore scandalous, frivolous and vexatious because it is groundless and lacking in basis or merit.”
However, Justice Dixon found Vincent did not intend to “waste public resources” and abuse the court process by lodging the petition as he was not legally assisted because he could not find a lawyer to help him.
“That lack of guidance is probably what resulted in his unsustainable petition,” he said.
He ordered Vincent to pay for Guy’s costs.
