Meralyn Klein quits as Liberal candidate for Yan Yean

A Liberal candidate in a key marginal seat has quit the race just nine days out from the state election, after being caught in controversy this week over comments about the Bourke St terror attack.

A Liberal candidate in a key marginal seat has quit the race on the eve of the state election over what Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says was a “grossly inappropriate” anti-Muslim video she made.

Meralyn Klein, who was taking on Labor’s Danielle Green in the northern suburbs seat of Yan Yean, resigned last night.

But it is now too late for her to be removed from the ballot paper as the Liberal candidate.

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Mr Guy said the party sought her resignation after she filmed a video with the Australian Liberty Alliance, an extremist right-wing party.

Ms Klein had also been caught in controversy this week after the Bourke St terror attack, having posted on Facebook about Matthew Guy: “Fantastic to have a leader that stands up against these attacks instead of endorsing them and telling us all we should live with them.”

Meralyn Klein while a councillor at Nillumbik.

The video shows Ms Klein speaking to controversial Australian Liberty Alliance candidate Avi Yemini about an alleged attack outside a restaurant she used to own.

She said two teenage boys from a nearby business would harass her family, damaging her property and setting fires under her daughter’s bedroom window.

Ms Klein then alleged that the boys made threats to rape her daughter and attack her, before setting upon her one night.

She said before the attack they called her a “dirty white whore”.

“I stopped dead I was so shocked at the comment and before I had time to speak they attacked me,” she said.

“They threw me to the ground, punched me in the face, grabbed my arm … I was bloodied and bruised and my clothes were torn.”

Ms Klein also alleged in the video that the boys “were of a culture that doesn’t accept white Australian women”.

“It’s disappointing to say but I think there are people in this country who are not coming here to get the best out of the country and give the best that they can,” she said.

“I’d like to see us look at immigration overall.”

The video, which Ms Klein said the ALA had misconstrued, then flashes the hashtag #muslimban.

Mr Yemini told the Herald Sun this morning that the video was shot yesterday, and that he edited it to include the fact that her attackers were Muslim, because it was vital to his party’s cause.

“She just didn’t want to say it herself, because she told me that story numerous times for months. That is why I went out and did the video with her,” he said.

“Were they Muslim and how did I get that, she just didn’t want to say it on camera. She decided to leave out the most crucial point ... I was shocked she left it out.”

Opposition leader @MatthewGuyMP addresses the resignation of the Liberal candidate for Yan Yean, Meralyn Klein #springst #vicvotes @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/oMgDl84T9h

— Monique Hore (@moniquehore) November 14, 2018

He claimed the Australian Liberty Alliance had a deal with her in Yan Yean to direct preferences to her campaign, even though the Liberals had preferenced the ALA last.

“We said she was going to be a Liberal that was tough on Islam and maybe later on come to us,” Mr Yemini told the Herald Sun.

“She is playing that political game, I tell you now there has been numerous meetings with her.”

“There was an obvious connection there and we had an alliance. It was all very bizarre yesterday, we had a shared aim and goal. I’m not sure what happened to her internally but to me the issue was bigger than one candidate.”

Premier Daniel Andrews said the now former Liberal candidate for Yan Yean had clearly stated in a Faceboook post he endorsed terrorism.

“It is not a matter of interpretation it is very clear what is written but I don’t think that person is worthy of a detailed response from me or anybody else.”

Mr Guy said the video was “grossly inappropriate”.

He said the Liberal Party dealt appropriately with candidates who “go off the rails”- pointing to Ms Klein and Neelam Rai, who resigned after the Herald Sun revealed she fronted an unregistered charity.

“Meralyn made a video, some of the material which was grossly inappropriate,” Mr Guy said.

“It was another political party, one I might add which we are putting last.

“We asked for her resignation within an hour of finding out (about the video) and we got it.”

Mr Guy said Ms Klein denied she was “anti-Muslim” when interviewed about the video on the ABC this morning.

She said the video was about her being a “victim of crime”.

“They made it into something it’s not,” Ms Klein said.

“They cut it, they sliced it and they put it up as their own, claiming it was an anti-Muslim video .... I am not anti-Muslim.”

Ms Klein is interviewed by Avi Yemini from the Australian Liberty Alliance in the video.

The park where Ms Klein says the attack occurred.

Ms Klein said while a devout Christian, she was a strong advocate of multiculturalism.

The Herald Sun can also reveal Ms Klein once escaped with a $150 fine after hitting a parking attendant with her car and dragging him 15 metres outside her children’s private Christian college.

Ms Klein, who has campaigned for tougher sentencing, narrowly escaped conviction in 2000 despite ploughing headfirst into the man as he directed traffic.

Her defence was bolstered by a reference from her brother-in-law Noel Ashby, who was then a Victoria Police assistant commissioner, who said she was a “caring woman who demonstrated a strong Christian ethic”.

She pleaded guilty to one charge of careless driving.

Ms Klein said the incident in 2000 was “a very minor traffic incident” and claimed reporting of the court case at the time was “sensationalised”.

Yan Yean is held by Labor MP Danielle Green by just 3.65 per cent.

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