Apparently some NSW Young Liberals thought that behaving like sexual predators was a fun way to campaign in the lead up to the March 2019 state election.
That is until the matter came to the notice of the voting public and their party superiors decided it wasn't funny anymore because it could cost them votes.
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
17 February 2019:
Four NSW Young Liberals
have been kicked out of the party for making lewd and derogatory comments about
women in an online chat group meant for election campaigning.
The four used the dating
app Tinder to connect with women who they hoped to convince to vote Liberal and
then made sexually explicit comments about them in a Facebook group.
In one instance, one of
the Young Liberals who works for a senior NSW Liberal MP, posted a photo of a
woman he was chatting with on Tinder, describing her as a “potato".
"A
potato that can vote," the Young Liberal wrote.
“Then root and boot her
and leave some HTVs (how to vote cards). F..k I could go some fries right
now."
Other comments in the
chat include references to a woman voting "blue", the Liberal colour.
"I like blue but
don't give me blue balls," another male member of the group wrote.
One of the men replied:
"I don't think he wants to bang a potato".
Several female Young
Liberals in the group chat were horrified by the comments and pleaded with
their male colleagues to end the discussion.
"Anytime would be a
good time to stop," one woman in the group wrote.
Really disappointing to
see so many nasty comments about a woman who you don't know."
Another said: “People
wonder why women don’t want to join the Liberal Party."
One of the men
responded: "Sorry to have started it, just thought it was a fun way of
campaigning."
The group, set up when
several Young Liberals were helping in last year’s South Australian election,
had 17 members, including NSW Young Liberals president Harry Stutchbury.
Other members in the
group hold executive positions with the Young Liberals and some work for senior
NSW ministers and MPs. One of the four who was disciplined works for a NSW
Nationals minister.
Mr Stutchbury, who did not
make any comments in the chat group, said he received a complaint from women
the morning after the discussion.
He said he told the four
men involved that their behaviour was not acceptable but he took no further
action and it was not reported to the party's head office.
The first Liberal Party
officials knew of the online chat was when they were alerted to it by The Sun-Herald,
despite the comments being made almost 12 months ago.
"I welcome the
decisive action the party has taken," Mr Stutchbury said.
The four received the
maximum available penalty late on Friday and were suspended from the party for
six months after officials saw the contents of the chat group…..
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
17 February 2019:
Two NSW Young Liberals
who were kicked out of the party after making lewd comments about women have
been sacked from their state government jobs.
The Liberals, one who
worked for Kiama MP Gareth Ward and the other for Tourism Minister Adam
Marshall, no longer have jobs with the government, sources have confirmed.
No comments:
Post a Comment