A One Nation candidate in Victoria has apologised for a series of offensive comments including repeated references to Australian-Indians as “curry munchers”, comparing a woman in burqa to a bag of rubbish, and sharing an image calling Julia Gillard a slut.
asserted
candidate → apologise → Gillard
The party’s candidate for Greenvale on Melbourne’s north-western fringe, Chris Moore, also made derogatory comments about lesbians and refugees and once posted that he “doesn’t like the way the new homo cleaner at work looks at me”.
One Nation Victoria has not disendorsed the candidate over the comments, which were made on his personal Facebook page between 2010 and 2012.
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which → make → 2010
In a statement, Moore told Guardian Australia “these were unthoughtful posts I shared as a young man among close friends”.
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I → tell → friends
“They don’t reflect who I am today,” Moore said.
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Moore → reflect → ?
“Today I’m focused on doing the right thing by the voters of Greenvale, and giving them a strong voice in the Victorian Parliament.
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I → do → Parliament
In 2012, Moore shared a picture of a woman and a child both wearing a burqa and standing between two full plastic rubbish bags.
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woman → share → bags
He then posted: “Haha spot the difference.”
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He → post → difference
Moore also shared an image of Gillard and the Home and Away character Alf Stewart.
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Moore → share → Gillard
The image of Gillard was accompanied by the caption: “smash my box Alf!”
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image → accompany → box
The image of Stewart was accompanied with: “If I wanted a greasy red box I’d go to KFC ya slut.”
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I → accompany → KFC
Moore also posted saying he “should probably stop shouting ‘Curry Muncher’ at the TV when I’ve got Indians living next door”.
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Indians → post → TV
He also posted that he “wonders who does the dishes in a lesbian relationship?”
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who → post → relationship
In 2010 he posted: “Just got the curry munchers to wash his car and pretty happy with the way it came up, looks like the boat people are good for something after all?”
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people → post → something
It is held by Iwan Walters, a parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs.
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It → hold → affairs
The electorate has a large Islamic and West Asian population.
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electorate → have → population
It has one of the highest proportions of people born in the Middle East and the lowest share of people with no religion.
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It → have → religion
On Tuesday, One Nation Victoria disendorsed its candidate for Preston, Franco Guardiani, whose private social media account described Adolf Hitler as the “GOAT” and claimed that “importing Islam is making pedophilia legal”.
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pedophilia → disendorse → Islam
The party’s Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, said Guardiani was disendorsed as soon as the comments were confirmed.
“At a time when Jewish Australians are experiencing unprecedented persecution, we are appalled that these comments have been made,” Pickering said.
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Pickering → say → persecution
Guardiani said he was disappointed by the party’s decision to dump him but understood their decision.
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he → say → decision
One Nation also disendorsed its candidate for the seat of Melbourne, Matthew Collins, over now-deleted comments on social media regarding a number of issues including sexual consent and pornographic jokes.
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Nation → disendorse → consent
Collins has apologised for the comments.
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Collins → apologise → comments
It is unclear how these candidate’s personal social media histories were not detected during candidate selection and vetting processes.
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histories → detect → processes
The party has claimed to have invested time and money into improving this process.
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party → claim → process
In Victoria, One Nation candidates must provide their personal social media accounts for vetting.
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candidates → provide → vetting
They are also interviewed by a three-person selection panel including Pickering and two party officials.
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They → interview → Pickering
The Aporia
