Bendigo East was one of 17 marginal electorates in which Labor benefited from having electorate officers work as field organisers during the 2014 election campaign.

Several thousand dollars worth of taxpayer money was used to campaign in Bendigo East.

Sitting MP Jacinta Allan was not implicated in a Victorian Ombudsman’s report earlier this year and has no case to answer. Former Labor MP Candy Broad signed off on the payments for Ms Allan’s seat.

Gaelle Broad – a former ABC presenter – is the first candidate announced to challenge Ms Allan in Bendigo East ahead of the November election, running for the Nationals.

Ms Broad said it was a bit rich for Labor to criticise other parties for the delay in announcing candidates for 2018.

“The seat of Bendigo East is held by a margin of only 5 per cent and is one of a handful of seats that will determine who wins government at the next state election,” she said.

“At the last state election (Liberal candidate) Greg Bickley came close to winning against Labor member Jacinta Allan, who has held the seat for 19 years. The result may have been very different if we knew then what we know now.

“This blatant misuse of taxpayer funds for political gain was a decision that any MP in the Labor Party could have stopped.”

Labor has since repaid $388,000 in taxpayer money that was used to campaign.

Labor has held the seat of Bendigo East since 1999 and a win in both state seats this year will give the party 20 years of rule in Bendigo at both state and federal levels.

Ms Allan said the Nationals were frustrated at the Liberals’ delay in announcing a candidate.

“This is yet more evidence that the National Party is upset that the Liberals haven’t got their act together to preselect a candidate for Bendigo East,” she said.

“The Premier visited Bendigo last week to open a women’s refuge and to announce health funding for an aged care facility – continuing the work we do as a good government that listens, cares and delivers.

“Instead of cheap politics, my focus is on continuing to work for the people of Bendigo – which is evidenced by a brand new hospital for our community, upgrades to our roads, schools and more rail services – with more to come in the lead up to November.”

Candidates for the seats of Wendouree, in Ballarat, and Niddrie, in Melbourne’s inner north east, were announced on Wednesday.