Wentworth UAP candidate posts to far-right Facebook page for policy suggestions
United Australia’s candidate for the seat of Wentworth has responded after a post to a Facebook page that promotes racist content appeared to lobby for policy suggestions.
A social media account associated with United Australia’s candidate for the seat of Wentworth Mike Bloomfield has appeared to canvas policy suggestions from users of a far-right Facebook page that comprises racist content.
Mr Bloomfield, who said he attends an African church and has a Brazilian wife, is running in the blue-ribbon eastern Sydney seat occupied by independent Kerryn Phelps.
He described his decision to post to the page ‘Make Australia Grouse Again 3’ last month as “silly” after asking users to call, text and email him suggestions before policies were drafted by the party in April.
The Facebook page has 6000 likes and posted pictures with the captions “still trying to figure out why the gov got rid of the white Australia policy” and “multiculturalism is a hate crime against white people” last month.
“We have not officially released policies yet, we wanted to get your attention and see what you want first,” Mr Bloomfield posted to the page on March 19.
“One thing is for sure, we really do need to unite and take the Australian Government back.
“If we can link our political smarts, (oh and there are some within (UAP) candidates and the friends from Make Australia Grouse Again 3, whom I am sharing this with, mark my words).”
Mr Bloomfield said he posted to a number of pages for policy suggestions before the election was announced but had “never visited” Make Australia Grouse Again 3.
The post has since been deleted and the North Sydney businessman denied he took suggestions from users of the Facebook page into UAP’s policy discussions.
“I have never visited it personally but have a friend on my friends list who made some fairly harmless … memes (on the page),” he said.
“Nobody contacted me. I haven’t actually drafted any policies, they were all done at the head office largely before I became involved but I misunderstood that the Coolum meeting was an opportunity to discuss policy suggestions from the public.
“I created some posts asking for any policy suggestions, however I got that wrong … so was silly to ask for input anyway. Pointless, but I thought that was what they wanted me to do.”
Mr Bloomfield is the third name on the ballot in Wentworth and is directing his first preference to Christian Democrat Paul Treacy.
Liberal front-runner Dave Sharma and Labor’s Tim Murray have placed him fifth while Dominic Wy Kanak of The Greens has preferenced Mr Bloomfield last.
The United Australia Party has been contacted for comment.
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