Brisbane council election: Jonathan Sriranganathan slams LNP election scratchies

Greens mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan has accused the LNP of being ‘willing to lie freely’ after it sent out electoral scratchies asking potential votes to ‘scratch and lose’.

Greens mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan has hit out at an LNP campaign tactic, claiming the party is “willing to lie freely” after it sent voters scratch-it cards asking them to “scratch and lose”.

The cards instruct voters to scratch nine circular panels to reveal “what a vote for Labor or the Greens could get you,” with the panels revealing Sriranganathan’s face and snippets of Greens campaign policies.

A further three circles are placed at the top labelled “unlucky symbols” also reveal Sriranganathan’s face and the Greens Party logo when scratched away.

Various comments alongside the Greens leader include, “higher taxes,” “metro projects cancelled,” “defund the police,” “30km/h speed limit” and “higher rents.”

Mr Sriranganathan said the LNP had repeatedly lied on the scratch cards, and were “treating voters like idiots”.

“Scratchies are expensive … we’ve never seen this kind of spending on attacking the Greens like this before,” he said.

“I take it as kind of a compliment.”

The LNP released a campaign flyer in the form of a scratch-it card. Picture supplied

Mr Sriranganathan said the Greens were not proposing decreased speed limits on all Brisbane streets, nor were they increasing pet registration, or were they unsupportive of the Brisbane Metro project.

“We actually support the Brisbane Metro,” he said.

“The closest one you could argue is our plan to cut road funding which is half true, we want to divert some of that road widening funding to public transport and infrastructure.

“They are treating voters like idiots.”

LNP campaign spokeswoman Fiona Cunningham accused Mr Sriranganathan of hypocrisy, saying he had been “caught out”.

“It’s gross hypocrisy for the Green’s self-declared anarchist leader to complain about safety when he wants to defund the police, supports stealing and has published a how-to guide for break-and-enter,” she said.
“Yesterday, he got caught out lying that he’d never called himself an anarchist.

“Today, he’s been caught out lying about wanting to price cats out of existence and enforce a 30km/h speed limit on 14,000 Brisbane streets.

“What next? Denying he wants to defund the police and claiming he never published a how-to guide for breaking-and-entering into vacant property?”