One Nation candidate Gerard Nicol withdraws after disparaging comments about women surface

One Nation’s Eden-Monaro candidate Gerard Nichol has withdrawn from the political race after disparaging comments about women emerged on social media.

The One Nation candidate for Eden-Monaro has withdrawn from the upcoming federal election after controversial comments about women surfaced.

Gerard Nicol told The Saturday Telegraph he would withdraw from One Nation when presented with screenshots of the comments which include “how many women have been raped and murdered walking home … F**k all” and in relation to household chores that “men have better fine motor skills. They can do the work in half the time. The only reason I’d get a woman to do chores is so she felt she had done something”.

One Nation's Gerard Nicol has withdrawn from the upcoming federal election where he was running in the seat of Eden-Monaro.

Mr Nicol initially claimed the posts were “mock-ups” doctored by a “very abusive feminist group who take offence at my stance on domestic violence being non-gendered and they have a history of making false allegations,” before explaining the posts.

“My comment about rape was an emotional response to a feminist meme that said something to the effect ‘MRA’s claim boys are raped, but women are afraid to walk in the park’.

One Nation Eden-Monaro candidate Gerard Nicol has withdrawn his candidacy after screenshots emerged of his controversial views of women

“This was shared by a man who is the victim of sexual assault. I was very angry to see the two issues conflated. As a male I am also afraid to walk in the park, and have regular nightmares to the effect (men are 10 times more likely to be victims of random violence).

“I do not remember saying “f**k all” and suspect that this has been edited in from another comment,” he said.

One Nation Eden-Monaro candidate Gerard Nicol’s controversial comments have killed his political aspirations.

“With the benefit of hindsight I would have made my point differently, but at the time I was incensed by the dismissal of male victims of sexual assault and the juxtaposition of female victimhood,“ Mr Nicol said.

Another comment that some “insufferable” women’s only value was their vagina. Mr Nicol said: “My point was simply that feminists can’t define what men find valuable, and ultimately, irrespective of whether you are a man or a woman, if you find your partner unbearable you’re only with them for the sex, to have children or for the money (generally men are not interested in women for their money). The comments were not made about women’s value to society, they were exclusively related to value in dating and relationships,” he said.

On the point of household chores he said: “The men I know do most of the chores. I make no claim that the men I know are in any way typical. I fail to see how men not wanting to ask women to do the chores is an attack on women.”

One of Gerard Nicol’s comments.

Mr Nicol has written a lot of controversial articles about feminism and men’s rights.

“I go out on a limb writing these articles, it is an attempt to connect with people. You put your ideas out there. I am not ashamed to be called a men’s rights activist (or MRA), but I am not an MRA and I am disliked by many MRAs,” he said.

One Nation took down Mr Nicol’s candidate Facebook and disabled his email after being forwarded the screenshots.

Mr Nicol would not disclose if he had been made to withdraw from the election by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

“The decision to withdraw was completely prompted by the interactions with One Nation about your email,” he said.

“Prior to nominating I made it clear to them that many of my past posts were controversial. They laughed this off by saying so are ours, and evidently made no effort to read my past posts even though my personal account was open to the public,” he said.

One Nation’s campaign director Damian Huxham said: “The derogatory statements made by Mr. Nicol on his personal social media account are repulsive and demonstrate an individual not worthy of standing as a One Nation candidate. As One Nation’s campaign director, I sought an urgent meeting with senior executive members who have supported my recommendation to disendorse the candidate for Eden-Monaro.”

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