Greens candidate Joanna Nilson quits over shoplifting, drug-taking boasts and sick slurs on Facebook
A GREENS candidate has been busted giving friends advice on stealing groceries — bragging she is “the baddest shoplifter there is” — during a series of online posts which included drug-taking boasts, sick slurs and slamming a female federal politician as a “fkn disgusting smug parrot”.
Victoria State Election
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A GREENS candidate has dramatically quit the state election race after it emerged she had posted tips on stealing groceries and bragged she was “the baddest shoplifter there is”.
Upper House hopeful Joanna Nilson stepped down on Wednesday night after the Herald Sun exposed her boasts, which she now claims were a joke, in a Facebook group called the “Bad Gals Club”.
“Take a plastic bag full of other stuff put it in your basket and then load all the expensive stuff in that take it out and go through the checkout with that on your arm pop through a soda water … Bingo $70 of groceries for 70c,” Ms Nilson said in one post.
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In another, she called federal Liberal MP Michaelia Cash a “fkn disgusting smug parrot”, adding “a woman in the f---ing liberal party is like a jew in the nazi party”.
Asked by the Herald Sun at 5.05pm on Wednesday about the posts — made in 2015 — Ms Nilson said: “I don’t know anything about that, I’ve never been a member of anything like that.”
But her Facebook page was deactivated minutes later and by 7pm, Ms Nilson had resigned.
“I regret making these comments, and while they were made several years ago, in jest online, and are in no way reflective of my beliefs or actions, I don’t want them to be a distraction,” she said on Wednesday night.
The embarrassing resignation is a major blow for the Greens, who had preselected Ms Nilson behind leader Samantha Ratnam on the party’s ticket for the Northern Metropolitan Upper House region.
Ms Ratnam says she is disappointed to lose a candidate who had bragged online about her shoplifting skills.
She said the incident was a warning for aspiring MPs to “be careful about their comments and acknowledge that when you do anything on social media, it’s not private”.
She said the Greens did vet Ms Nilson before preselecting her, but dodged questions about whether she was concerned about the party’s other candidates, saying: ‘This does happen in election campaigns to a number and range of parties.”
Ms Ratnam said that Ms Nilson had “recognised the seriousness of this issue” and resigned to avoid being “a distraction to the campaign”.
“The decision was made by the candidate, she made the decision as soon as she became aware of the seriousness of the matter,” Ms Ratnam said.
She noted the comments were made in a closed Facebook group several years ago.
The group, called the “Bad Gals Club”, had discussed how to steal groceries from supermarkets. Ms Nilson bragged that shewas “the baddest shoplifter there is”.
The area is a Greens stronghold, including the suburbs Brunswick, Richmond and Northcote.
In the Facebook conversation about shoplifting, Ms Nilson said she loved “just strolling out with a hot chook”.
When another friend commented that she had “done it all”, she replied: “Oh please bitch I am the baddest shoplifter there is.”
In another post on the “Bad Gals Club”, Ms Nilson said she was struggling with a hangover and added: “I stink of the weed in my bag.”
Ms Nilson also said a service that home-delivered “nangs” — small canisters holding nitrous oxide gas for whipped cream, which some people inhale for a quick high — “sounds like a dream”.
“Fk how good R nangs,” she wrote.
Ms Nilson, who is a co-convener of the Victorian Greens Women’s Network, initially told the Herald Sun she knew nothing about the Facebook comments.
“It’s not under my name so I don’t really have any comment, and I don’t think there’s really a story there either, to be honest,” she said.
But after Greens party chiefs were alerted to the matter, Ms Nilson pulled out of the election race.
A party spokesman said: “Joanna regrets making these comments and has done the right thing by resigning as to not distract from the campaign. The party has accepted her resignation.”
Ms Nilson had announced her preselection last week, saying she was “very excited” to be running in support of “the brilliant Samantha Ratnam”.
Ms Nilson described herself as being “extremely passionate” about issues including safe and affordable housing, gender equality, drug and alcohol rehabilitation and harm minimisation, and mental health funding.
Twitter: @tminear
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