WATCH THE VIDEO: Yes and No supporters clash on Stanthorpe’s Maryland St amid Voice drama across region
A video has emerged on social media showing how the upcoming referendum debate has divided the region, with supporters clashing publicly in Stanthorpe. WATCH THE VIDEO.
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A video showing two sides of the ongoing Voice to Parliament has been posted to social media, which depicts a scuffle of two opposing supporters of the upcoming referendum.
The video, believed to be from last Saturday, was uploaded to a Stanthorpe community forum on Facebook about a week ago.
The incident shows an unknown man, presumed to be a Yes supporter, clashing with No campaigners on September 30.
The man, being filmed, stands close to a woman wearing a placard, before approaching the man filming and attempting to push the camera away.
Someone can be heard saying “I’ll deck you” before the man filming the incident said “so this is what the Yes voters do... this is a Yes voter for you”.
A family, with a number of young children, can be seen in the background as the two clash.
It is understood the video was recorded along Stanthorpe’s Maryland St opposite the Country Club Hotel in the Piazza.
“Sad to see how some people behave, just because it doesn’t sit with you the way others think and vote doesn’t give you the right to behave like that,” one commenter said.
Local police have been contacted to determine if charges have been pressed against any of the parties involved.
The incident comes as last week a video surfaced showing an altercation between an elderly man and Toowoomba’s MP for Groom, Garth Hamilton at a pre-polling event in the Garden City.
The confrontation shows an elderly man swearing and yelling at the Groom MP in a heated debate over the upcoming referendum, but it is unclear what caused the fracas.
Mr Hamilton tells the member of the public- whose identity is not known- to “have a good day” the man responds “I can’t have a good day mate – I’ve already had a bad day”.
The clear division between Yes and No supporters across the region was clear last week, when the Member for the Southern Downs was slammed for comments made in this publication.
MP James Lister publicly stated he would be voting No, and that “communities (he) represents would probably tar and feather (him) if (he) voted Yes.”
Local Indigenous Voice supporters and the region’s Labor candidate both slammed Mr Lister’s statements.
Yorta Yorta man and Yes23 campaigner Adam Wooding called the comments “disheartening,” while Labor candidate Joel Richters described the comments as “hurtful” and “should not go unchecked”.
“I was offended to read the comment where James seemingly called the 250 Indigenous leaders of the First Nations National Constitutional Convention “political and cultural elites,” Mr Richters said on Thursday.
Updates to come.