Speaking at the Demystify Politics and Politicians candidates forum held in Mooroopna last night, he stressed that while he was a member of One Nation he remained an individual.
“If I disagree with something and I don’t like it I won’t vote for it,” he said.
The forum was attended by Mr Bryant, as well as Nationals candidate Shane Sali, Victorian Socialists candidate Karen Hocking, independent candidate Lou Costa and Labor candidate Cayla Fin.
Hosted by the Doorbells Migrant Women’s Network, the forum was designed to give community members from a variety of cultural backgrounds the opportunity to ask questions of candidates for Shepparton in the upcoming Victorian election.
Mr Bryant’s comments came after he was questioned firmly by audience members about what he would do to ensure multicultural communities were kept safe if he was elected.
He was also pushed on previous comments made by Pauline Hanson, including “there are no good Muslims”, to which he responded “I believe she walked that back.”
Meanwhile, Mr Sali was pressed on his party’s decision to preference One Nation ahead of Labor.
He said his party had made “no deal with One Nation”, but its priority was to change the government at the election.
He would not be drawn on if there were any One Nation policies that he believed would make it unacceptable for his party to preference them.
“Our focus is on our team and our plan,” he said. “We’re not focused on what’s happening in other parties.”
Mr Sali was also heavily questioned on why he decided to run as a Nationals candidate in the upcoming election and not as an independent.
“Government has the greatest influence,” he said.
“When I go to Canberra, when I go to Spring St, I meet with ministers.”
This came after independent candidate Lou Costa revealed that previous independent Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed secured $1.6 billion in funding for the electorate during her eight years in office.
The News spoke to multiple attendees after the event who said they weren’t confident that Mr Bryant or Mr Sali could separate their personal views from those of their parties.
“They can’t answer questions because they are part of a party,” Hussam Saraf said.
“He (Sali) should have ran as an independent.”
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