Dutton Defends Liberal Candidate After Bigoted Social Media Posts
Image: Photo: AAP Image/Diego Fedele.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has been forced to defend a Western Sydney Liberal candidate only days before the federal election, after offensive social media posts came to light over the weekend.
The Liberal candidate for the seat of Fowler, Vivek Singha, allegedly made a series of racist and sexist posts in 2023, which included a racial slur for Indigenous Australians.
“50K per a–, already being spent, they’ll want 500K per head,” read one post made in the lead up to the Voice to Parliament referendum.
Singha also criticised Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, following media coverage of her daughter’s experiences with domestic violence.
“Worst of it all, why are YOU @tanya_plibersek of all people standing for others when you couldn’t even look after your own daughters (sic) safety,” Singha wrote.
“Anyword (sic) coming out of this person is as good as a puff frm the backside!!! cannot keep my home safe give me a blank cheque for a****”.
In a statement made to the ABC on Sunday, Singha apologised for making the social media posts, saying: “I should not have expressed myself in that way and I sincerely regret doing so.”
Plibersek labels Singha’s continued candidacy “alarming”
Dutton declined to say whether the Liberal party should disendorse the candidate.
“He has apologised for the comments and so he should have. They were inappropriate and shouldn’t have been made,” Dutton told reporters on Monday, before attempting to change the subject.
When asked by another journalist whether he would advocate for a Labor candidate to stand down were they in a similar situation, Dutton replied that he had “answered that question earlier”.
Plibersek condemned Singha’s “victim-blaming attitudes which excuse the behaviour of perpetrators” in a statement on Monday.
“The fact that someone holding these views is putting himself forward for election to parliament is alarming,” she said.
“As a parent there is nothing more devastating than knowing one of your children is hurting.
“It is the strongest urge of any mother to protect her children, and to question herself when something goes wrong.”
Singha is not expected to win the votes of his electorate as Australians take to the polls this weekend, with the seat likely to be either retained by independent MP Dai Le, or won over by Labor’s Tu Le.
