Greens candidate Jim Casey filmed smashing pinata of Scott Morrison.
An inner Sydney Greens candidate has been caught on camera smashing a piñata of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s head. WATCH THE VIDEO; New polling shows some worrying signs for Zali Steggall in Warringah; And Labor is under fire for it’s transgender policies.
NSW
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An inner Sydney Greens candidate has been caught on camera smashing a piñata of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s head.
Ex-unionist Jim Casey, who is challenging Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese in the seat of Grayndler, was filmed swinging for the piñata with a baton at a backyard house party on October 20.
Mr Casey, the former firefighters’ union boss and international socialist organisation member, ran against Mr Albanese in 2016, when he was defeated by a margin of 31 per cent.
he video, uploaded online with the caption “Greens candidate for Grayndler Jim Casey having a go at ScoMo” by a union official also at the party, shows Mr Casey wearing a black mask attacking an effigy of Mr Morrison wearing spectacles.
Mr Casey gives a little victory cheer when he realises his aim is successful.
Mr Casey, via a spokeswoman, defended the video yesterday, saying there was “nothing sinister” about it.
“Anyone who’s been to a party with a piñata knows you’re supposed to hit it with a stick. There is nothing sinister about this video,” Mr Casey said in a statement.
However, Mr Albanese was critical of his opponent’s physical aggression. “What we need is more civilised political engagement,” he said.
“What we don’t need is aggression in place of being able to articulate a political vision for the country.”
The Greens have unsuccessfully targeted the seat Mr Albanese has held since 1996 in an attempt to extend the stronghold held by Newtown MP Jenny Leong in the NSW Parliament.
The latest Newspoll showed support for the Greens at around 9 per cent nationally.
Mr Casey was criticised in 2016 for declaring he preferred Tony Abbott to Bill Shorten as a prime minister because Mr Abbott would trigger street protests and civil disruption from the left in a way Mr Shorten would not. The comments were found on a YouTube video, which also features the candidate saying he wanted an anti-war movement “disrupting things in the streets”.
TONY’S GETUP LIFESAVER
By Anna Caldwell, Ed Boyd and Jack Houghton
THE attack ads from activist group GetUp! targeting Tony Abbott are expected to backfire with internal polling already showing the activist group’s grubby tactics in the fight for Warringah are likely to drag down support for the former PM’s chief rival.
Insiders expect the exposure of the group’s dirty tactics, which even Mr Abbott’s independent foe Zali Steggall was forced to condemn yesterday, will sharpen the contest in the crucial battleground seat of Warringah.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal a voice response phone poll of 2000 people in Warringah conducted for the Abbott campaign found that more than two-thirds of voters who were considering voting independent in the seat had serious concerns about backing a candidate likely to support Labor or the Greens.
The poll, conducted last month, found 70 per cent of voters who indicated they would vote independent had “serious concerns” about Labor or Greens links.
The Abbott campaign, which has been fiercely focused on grassroots campaigning and local issues, believes that the repeated exposure of Ms Steggall’s links to GetUp! and the group’s high-profile involvement in the dirty northern beaches battle will help the former PM. Mr Abbott trailed so badly in early polling that he was facing his exit from parliament.
The contest is still tight, with Mr Abbott describing it as “the fight of my life”.
However, one senior NSW Liberal who has campaigned said he believed the sentiment on the ground in Warringah for Mr Abbott had improved dramatically.
“There’s a lot of love for Tony when I’m campaigning,” they said.
Former PM John Howard led the widespread commendation yesterday of the withdrawn ads depicting Mr Abbott as a budgie-smuggler-clad lifesaver refusing to rescue a drowning swimmer.
He said the ad was “disgraceful” and highly offensive to surf lifesaving volunteers, including Mr Abbott, who has volunteered at beaches for two decades. He has also been a volunteer firefighter for 14 years.
“I thought that was outrageous to suggest a man who has given years of his life to volunteer organisations would allow somebody to drown while he sat there and sneered at it,” Mr Howard said.
“I think that was an appalling ad and it was inserted by GetUp! and they are fellow travellers with the Labor Party in this election.
“It was a disgrace to Australian politics that it ever appeared.”
The clip, which GetUp! pulled yesterday after it was widely criticised, also drew the ire of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who desperately tried to distance Labor from the group.
“Some of the stuff they say I haven’t agreed with, some of the stuff in the past I have. But this ad is well out of line. You can have your disagreements with Tony Abbott but I respect the fact that he he’s a surf lifesaver.”
Ms Steggall also distanced herself from the attack.
“I don’t approve of that kind of advertising; I think you need to focus on policies and not smear campaigns in relation to people. So I thought that was of quite poor taste.”
Mr Abbott said GetUp! owed an apology to every one of the country’s volunteer lifesavers.
“Forget me, but GetUp should apologise to Australia’s 150,000-plus surf lifesavers for mocking what they do,” he said.
GetUp! first attempted to justify that the video was necessary by claiming climate change would eventually kill 250,000 people each year.
However, after criticism from lifeguards it pulled the ad, which was authorised by the group’s national director Paul Oosting.
“We have the greatest respect for Australia’s lifesavers and apologise for the insensitivity of the timing and subject matter of our planned ad,” GetUp! said.
Late last year Mr Abbott helped fight off a fire on the property of Beacon Hill retiree Barry Cafe, whose home was nearly destroyed by a bushfire.
Yesterday, Mr Cafe said he was upset to see Mr Abbott’s service record used against him in a political attack. “GetUp! have a lot to explain about why they put that ad up. It just isn’t the right way to treat a former leader of this country,” he said.
Yesterday voters in Warringah were also unimpressed with the video.
Queenscliff’s Greg Halpin, 54, who is considering voting for Ms Steggall, said he welcomed the video being taken down.
“The timing of it wasn’t great,” he said. “I agree with it getting taken down in terms of respect for those people who lost their lives.”
DOCTOR ALARM AT ALP GENDER AGENDA
By Clarissa Bye
Doctors have raised concerns that a raft of radical Labor policies on transgender issues will result in children undergoing unnecessary sex change procedures.
Paediatric professor John Whitehall, from Western Sydney University, said he was concerned about the ramifications of policies contained in Labor’s National Platform which include creating a “National Gender Centre” and appointing a Commissioner of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
Mr Shorten refused to answer questions from The Daily Telegraph about the policies, which also argue the cost of “gender affirming medical technologies” should be reduced because “cost should not be a barrier to accessing these services”.
The policy document also calls for identification options “beyond binary male/female” on birth certificates and passports, a policy Mr Shorten has previously promised will never be implemented.
“This National Platform outlines Labor’s key policy priorities,” the document states.
“Labor commits to removing, wherever possible, barriers to accessing these services and consulting with experts in government.
“This should materialise in a focus on creating fair, equal and affordable access to medical care and treatments relevant to trans and gender diverse Australians.”
Dr Whitehall (pictured) said the policy was an endorsement of radical gender theory which is still “unproven” and debated within the scientific community. “In my opinion it is pernicious: it will provide official sanction for an unproven concept whose ‘treatment’ has proven consequences including castration,” he said.
He said a major worry was a new ALP clause banning so called “conversion therapies”, which doctors fear will be so broad it could actually result in GPs being unable to refer children to “old fashioned” treatments like counselling — instead forcing them to send them to gender clinics.
“Labor has promised to bring prohibitive sanctions against any practitioner who resists sending a confused child to an approved clinic where hormone treatment is practised and its chemical castration approved.
“This party of the working- class has promised to permit no other option for any of its gender-confused children.
“The politicians should leave gender-confused children to family and child psychologists and psychiatrists.”
Australian Conservative senate candidate and Sydney barrister Sophie York, a mother of four, said the policies to promote gender fluidity undermined parental control over children.
“They are putting out kids at risk on puberty blockers and making other irreversible changes,” she said.
GP Dr Christina Christopher said there was no other condition where society embarked on “life-altering interventions” without strong evidence as she claims is the case for children with different gender perceptions.
“The imperative to do no harm is paramount,” she said.
Originally published as Greens candidate Jim Casey filmed smashing pinata of Scott Morrison.
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