Introduction

PML was a grassroots campaign run during the 2022 Federal election in response to the illiberal and often totalitarian overreach of the State and Federal Liberal and Labor Governments during the COVID lockdowns, the long-running and economically destructive move to “net-zero” and the ever-increasing taxes, imposts and regulations imposed on the Australian populace. It was the brainchild of Jeff Grimshaw, a conservative political activist, specialist in Information Technology and author of “Trigger Warming”, a book debunking the global warming narrative.

PML was primarily a website that anyone could use to make their own How To Vote cards. By answering a few simple questions the site would recommend a Lower House and Senate HTV, users could then rearrange candidates as they saw fit with the only caveat being that Liberal/Nationals, Labor and Greens would be the bottom three parties in the House and the option to not vote for them at all in the Senate. Users could then email their HTV card or save it as an image or PDF for use on election day.

Budget

The entire PML campaign was run on under $20,000. This covered the costs of development, infrastructure (servers etc.) and advertising. All money raised came from donations from everyday people, the plumbers, sparkies, teachers, small business owners, office workers etc. many of whom had lost their jobs, incomes and businesses as a result of lockdowns and forced vaccine mandates. PML had a team of unpaid volunteers who performed all manner of tasks from data entry to social media campaigning. Other than the payments to the developers and the banner printers nobody received any renumeration financial or otherwise including the founder and inventor.

To have achieved what was done with just $20,000 was a miracle. There was a constant struggle for funds: after PML was shown on Sky News Outsiders the server crashed from the overwhelming demand. Just days before the election enough money was raised to upgrade the server to meet demand. In the words of the founder, “PML was held together with sticky tape and rubber bands. An oily rag would have been luxury.”

Impact

The website had over half a million unique users in the 25 days it operated. Whilst this is impressive there are 17 million registered voters in Australia. With a bigger budget and more time the site could easily have reached into the millions. Users also shared their HTV’s with friends and groups printed off copies to hand out at booths.

The feedback from users was extremely positive. “This makes voting fun!”, “I can’t believe nobody has done this before!”, “Finally, I feel like I own my vote” were just a few of the comments we received. People loved how easy the site was to use, that it could be done on a mobile phone or desktop, that the system made them think more carefully about their vote and that it made voting for the minor parties more worthwhile.

Election Outcome

The 2022 Federal election resulted in a Labor “win” despite having 815,000 votes fewer that the 2019 Federal election. Overall the Lib / Lab / Green primary vote dropped by almost 2 million votes. It was the worst result for the major parties in election history. This also meant a loss of millions of dollars in electoral funding for the majors.

Current State

PML is currently $2500 in debt: $1700 in ASIC fees and $800 in accountant fees.

PML will have to wound up if we do not receive donations / funding. It will not be available for the 2024 QLD State election or 2025 Federal election.

To keep PML going to the 2025 election we need funding to:

• Modifying the code for the QLD State election

• Enhancing and optimising the website for the 2025 Federal election (adding the option to number every box above or below the line in the Senate, allowing an “override” function for the few worthwhile politicians worth electing – e.g. Alex Antic)

• Costs for data entry / testing

• Legal, accounting and registration (ASIC) fees

• Advertising

• Servers and other infrastructure / software subscriptions

The Future

More and more people are turning against the major parties and voting for PHON, UAP, LDP and other “freedom friendly” parties. PML was not just a website to make HTV cards but a movement in itself. It unified many people who were disgruntled with the major parties from the left and right. It would be a terrible loss if we have to close it down, especially after all the hard work that was put into it by so many people. With a decent amount of funding PML can be much bigger and have a far greater impact on the upcoming QLD election and 2025 Federal election.

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