NSW Treasurer Matt Kean says Deves’ comments ‘will damage Zimmerman, Sharma campaigns’

Ben Fordham has blasted Matt Kean for running scared after the NSW treasurer ‘ran off to the ABC’ following his call to disendorse Warringah candidate Katherine Deves.

Ben Fordham has blasted Matt Kean for running scared after the NSW treasurer ‘ran off to the ABC’ following his call to disendorse Warringah candidate Katherine Deves.

It cames as Prime Minister Scott Morrison once again backed in Ms Deves in the face of a wave of criticism from party moderates, saying she should not be “silenced.”

“She is a woman standing up for women and girls and their fair access to sport in this country,” said the PM.

“I will stand up with her, my team is standing up with her, and we will make sure that she won’t be silenced”.

Mr Kean avoided an interview opportunity on Fordham’s 2GB breakfast show to explain why he believes Ms Deves is “not fit for office” and discuss further the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sport.

The snub prompted Fordham to launch a bitter attack on the minister, saying his call to disendorse Ms Deves was out of “hate” for the PM.

“He hates Scott Morrison so much, he wants to do everything he can to tie up Scott Morrison’s shoe laces, just before he’s about to run out on the field and fight an election campaign,” Fordham said.

The minister avoided an interview opportunity on Fordham’s 2GB breakfast show.

“He’s doing his best to unsettle the Liberal candidate in Warringah and saying she should be disendorsed”.

Earlier, Mr Kean sais he was “very concerned” Ms Deves’ candidacy will damage the campaigns of Liberal moderates Trent Zimmerman and Dave Sharma.

This comes as the Liberal candidate for Warringah faced intense backlash including “death threats” for her views on transgender athletes and women’s sport with Mr Kean joining calls for the Liberal Party to officially disendorse her.

“We should never have been in a situation where the PM had to intervene to pick a candidate like this - let alone a candidate like (Deves),” the NSW Treasurer told Radio National Breakfast on Tuesday morning

Despite securing the backing of former PM John Howard, Ms Deves is being called to resign by at least one local Liberal branch for her anti-trans comments.

Katherine Deves at home. Picture: Nikki Short

Scott Morrison's captain's pick for Warringah is very troubling. People here want their leaders to focus on the real issues, not to stoke needless division. #auspolpic.twitter.com/ThJM1IKeBF

— 🌏 Zali Steggall MP (@zalisteggall) April 13, 2022

Federal Member for Warringah Zali Steggall has called for Ms Deves to be disendorsed for her “homophobic” social media comments.

But Industry Minister Angus Taylor told 2GB today he believed Ms Deves should “remain” in the Liberal party saying, “fairness in women’s sport is an important issue.”

Ms Deves has said she is “not going anywhere” and revealed she has “been bullied in the most vile way and received death threats.”

There are concerns Katherine Deves’ candidacy will damage the

campaigns of Liberal moderates Trent Zimmerman and Dave Sharma

In deleted tweets and posts, Ms Deves said she was ”triggered” by the LGBT rainbow flag, and in another of a transgender teenager who had undergone top surgery, she commented: “They will not stand for seeing vulnerable children surgically mutilated and sterilised”.

Ms Deves has since deleted her Facebook and Instagram accounts and apologised for the language she used in describing transgender children.

Meanwhile Labor leader Chris Minns entered the debate, telling 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Tuesday:“I think it’s a complicated issue but the simple fact is when young male adolescents go through puberty they have a large amount of a natural chemical called testosterone,

“It’s a powerful, natural anabolic steroid and there’s simply not enough preparation, training, dieting or natural skill for female athletes to overcome that competitive advantage,” the opposition leader said on Tuesday morning.

“It’s no-one’s fault, it’s just a problem of biology.”

“So when sports make decisions to ensure you have got a level playing field and fairness is really at the centre of competitive sport in particular, you need to support those sports when they undertake those rules. It’s designed to stop an unfair advantage.”

“It’s no-one’s fault but we can’t turn away from these issues as a result of the fact that we’ve got the situation,” said Mr Minns.

Originally published as NSW Treasurer Matt Kean says Deves’ comments ‘will damage Zimmerman, Sharma campaigns’