Sunshine Coast Council candidate Camillo Primavera defends ties to My Place movement

A Sunshine Coast Council candidate that has been linked to a controversial online group opposed to vaccinations and 5G towers claims his motivation for joining them was to bring the community together.

Sunshine Coast Council candidate Camillo Primavera has explained his link to the My Place movement. Picture: Supplied

A Sunshine Coast Council candidate that has been linked to a controversial online group opposed to vaccinations and 5G towers said his motivation for joining them was to bring the community together.

Division 10 councillor candidate Camillo Primavera is a member of the My Place group, a movement founded by “sovereign citizen” Darren Bergwerf as a place for people who are allegedly opposed to 5G towers and Covid vaccinations, among other issues. But he insists the group is not made up of conspiracy theorists.

My Place has groups in regions around Australia, including several locations on the Sunshine Coast such as Beerwah, Coolum Beach, Glasshouse Mountains, Maleny, Mooloolaba, Nambour and Noosa.

The group has denied claims that it is secretly trying to infiltrate local councils at the upcoming election.

The post description for My Place Nambour on Facebook, states that the goal for “My Place” is to “implement a project that allows us to step away from the current systems that are not serving our best interests”.

The post description for My Place Nambour on Facebook. Picture: Facebook

A navy veteran, Justice of the Peace and registered nurse of over 40 years, Mr Primavera, who is listed as a founder and coordinator of My Place Nambour in material that has been produced for the election, has been a member of My Place since August last year.

He has been seen making posts in the ‘My Place Australia,’ Facebook group, sharing a post promoting the ‘My Place Nambour’ group, as well as requesting to be added to the coordinator page.

A post shared by Camillo Primavera in the My Place Australia Facebook group. Picture: Supplied

He said that he has attended gatherings that have been held by the group across the Sunshine Coast.

“I do attend their meetings,” Mr Primavera said.

“Well the ones I attend to would be Noosa, Coolum, Nambour, they have various speakers so I like to hear what’s going on.”

Mr Primavera said his motivation for joining the group was to bring the community together following the Covid pandemic.

“There’s too much division that has happened since Covid and I just wanted to bring the community back together, instead of being divided,” Mr Primavera said.

“There’s all this division between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, whether you’re vaccinated or unvaccinated, we’re all one, we should all be working together.”

Mr Primavera also expressed his concern over 5G towers and surveillance in the community.

“There is too much surveillance, and like I said 40 years of nursing, we have too much radiation in our society,” he said.

Election campaign material listing Camillo Primavera as the founder/coordinator of My Place Nambour. Picture: Facebook

“It should be controlled a little bit better, we can’t have you know, radiation towers all over the place.

“We don’t want to be turned into a China, that’s my main concern.”

He went onto criticise the way sections of the community have been portrayed for their freedom of thought.

“All I’m about is bringing unity back into community, any other political bulls--t is all bulls--t,” Mr Primavera said.

“I am actually really sick and tired of the mainstream media labelling anyone that doesn’t believe in the bulls--t as being conspiracies (conspiracy theorists).

“We’re not conspiracy theorists, there are so many stories out there now been proven that they’re not conspiracies, they’re just people concerned about the way they’re being portrayed.”

Mr Primavera was also involved in a gathering at the Tewantin TAFE earlier this year as the co-founder of the Community Village Group.

The group claimed the purpose of the visit was to clean up the derelict former education facility in order to “prepare the site for use by people living in tents, cars, vans, and caravans” despite the land having never been approved for this use.

At the time, Mr Primavera said the group had good intentions in attempting to clean up the site.