David Elliott posts ‘rip your head off’ congratulations to dad mate
NSW Police Minister David Elliott has used a private dads’ support group – which has been likened to a “digital pub” – to use crude language towards a Sydney auctioneer, but it’s not what you think.
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At first glance, it looked like a Police Minister using stunningly crude language to threaten another man for getting better media coverage than him.
But David Elliott’s Facebook post — warning a mate he’d “rip off his head and s**t in the hole” next time he received “more column space” than he did — was interpreted as a compliment of the highest order when it was written by the minister inside a private chat group supporting dads.
The post — which risked spinning into a political scandal for the police minister — was hailed by the man it was directed at as “lighthearted banter” akin to a conversation in a “digital pub” and he in turn praised Mr Elliott for his efforts supporting dads and charity work in his electorate.
Mr Elliott wrote the post — in the 4000 member group “dads of the hills” — on Saturday, pinning a news article about auctioneer Stuart Benson’s real estate success.
“This town ain’t big enough for the both of us Stu so if I ever pick up The Telegraph again and see that you’ve got more column space than me I will rip your head off and s**t in the hole, I kid you not. This is your last warning. Don’t let it happen again,” the post read.
Labor seized on the post, alerting news outlets to the crude language and threat from the police minster.
But when The Daily Telegraph contacted Mr Benson, he praised Mr Elliott for the work he had done in the private dads group and said the police minister was in fact complimenting him, noting the post had received close to 200 likes in the group.
“Wow that’s political muckraking, David and I are great mates and we do charity work together,” Mr Benson, who founded the dads online forum, said. “It was a congratulations post from him, he was having a joke with me. This is like two mates at a digital pub. The group is about community support and mateship, it’s exclusively for dads.”
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Mr Benson said he started the group to support dads in the local area.
Asked about the comments when contacted yesterday, Mr Elliott said “this was a joke made to a very good friend in a private thread who found the funny side of the discussion. It’s nothing but a bit of banter between local dads using a military reference previously used on the page.”
“I’ve noticed men in my community feel very much alone. We all drop our guard which encourages people to speak out about personal issues,” he said.
“No one ever accused me of being politically correct.”
The group helps local dads going through divorce, family trauma and financial issues and Mr Elliott has praised Mr Benson’s “remarkable contribution to the Baulkham Hills community” in parliament.
Originally published as David Elliott posts ‘rip your head off’ congratulations to dad mate