Liberal MP Steve Minnikin releases leaflet saying minority groups ‘attack’ Australian values

QUEENSLAND’s Liberal party has distributed a leaflet that has a number of its constituents fired up. But who was it aimed at?

Steve Minnikin won Chatsworth in the 2015 State election. Picture: Renae Droop

A QUEENSLAND Liberal MP has come under fire for releasing a leaflet claiming minority groups were “attacking traditional Australian values”.

Obtained by the ABC, the leaflet was distributed across the South Brisbane seat of Chatsworth by the LNP’s Steve Minnikin. Mr Minnikin has held the seat since 2012 and is also the opposition spokesman for multicultural affairs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships.

The leaflet, distributed as part of his campaign before the November 25 election, reads: “Labor keeps putting up the cost of your car rego, power prices are soaring and the unemployment rate keeps rising.

“And that’s on top of the attacks on traditional Australian values and our way of life by minority groups who think it’s their right to tell you what to think.”

The leaflet supplied by Steve Minnikin.

Picture: ABC

The comment was supported by Queensland Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls, who said in a press conference yesterday, “We’re sick of these minority groups that are going around telling us how to think, putting I suppose our traditional values that we hold under question.”

“I think we’re all pretty sick and tired with the nanny state, which is fostered by the Labor Party.

“When most people would say there are more important things to deal with, but we know they find a home in certain sections of the Labor Party,” Mr Nicholls added.

The opposition leader did not explain exactly what he meant by “traditional values”.

Speaking to news.com.au today, Mr Minnikin said the letter wasn’t just distributed by his electoral office but by the entire Queensland LNP. It was a central piece sent out to all LNP members.

“In no way shape or form is it meant to offend anyone in the community,” he said.

“It’s not even referring to special interest groups and it was not the intention of the LNP to offend any cultural or religious groups.”

Mr Minnikin said the “minority groups” the leaflet referred to were instead groups like anti-vaxxers. He also said it referred to “people who want to dishonour the tradition of Anzac Day”.

But Mr Minnikin has denied the leaflet was targeting Yes supporters of the same-sex marriage postal vote.

“I’ve had no one from the LGBTQI community contact me and I’ve only had a few people contact me about cultural sensitivity,” he said.

Mr Minnikin said two of his close friends are part of the Queensland LGBTQI Association and that he doesn’t consider “the LGTBTQI community radical at all”.

The MP admitted that “maybe it could’ve been nuanced a bit better” but “in the heat of campaigns you always have to look at how people interpret words”.

Steve Minnikin won Chatsworth in the 2015 State election. Picture: Renae Droop

Islamic Council of Queensland spokesman Ali Kadri said he hoped the letter was “an oversight”. Mr Kadri also happens to live in Chatsworth, Mr Minnikin’s electorate.

“I just hope this is an oversight. I just hope someone from the party has typed this up without getting approval,” Mr Kadri told the ABC.

“In a multicultural diverse nation a member of parliament is supposed to represent all groups, and the rights of minorities is an important cornerstone of democracy.

“I have spoken to a couple of Chinese people and Indian people … they all feel this is trying to take advantage of divisions which are going on.”

Mr Minnikin said he has since spoken to Mr Kadri who is “completely fine”.

“He was good in the way he received the call,” he said.

Mr Minnikin had nothing but praise for Queensland’s multicultural society, saying that one in three Queenslanders come from overseas.

“We are one of the greatest examples of multiculturalism on the planet,” he said.

The Brisbane MP also said “the greatest part of being a politician was heading to the citizenship ceremonies”.

Multicultural Affairs Minister Grace Grace told the ABCit was “totally unacceptable”.

“For a shadow multicultural affairs minister to be stoking fear and division is totally unacceptable, and I would like to know what he means by what he wrote,” Ms Grace said.

“If it is an attack on our multicultural community here in Queensland and in Brisbane, I think that is a disgrace.

“That letter can have a number of different meanings, and I think it’s written purposefully in that way,” she said.

An LNP spokesman also defended the letter saying “radical activist groups” are trying to tell people what to think about things like same-sex marriage and immigration.