A Current Affair barking dog man puts forward his endorsement for Liberal candidate

The man who was made famous for his barking dog impression on A Current Affair has re-emerged with a political message ahead of the election.

The man who went viral for making a barking dog noise on A Current Affair has appeared to give his endorsement to a Liberal candidate running for the seat of Bennelong.

Simon Kennedy was picked by rank and file members at the end of March to be the Liberal candidate after former tennis star John Alexander announced he would retire at the election.

Mr Kennedy, who is part of the party’s Right, was last month filmed telling anti-vaccine and lockdown activists that he would cross the floor in parliament over issues affecting their freedom.

He was speaking to members of A Stand in the Park, a group that has a history of dispersing vaccine disinformation.

“People losing their jobs. I have an enormous amount of empathy for that,” he says in the video.

“It wasn’t a situation any individual put themselves in. They were being forced. They had to choose, do I take this course of action and put these chemicals in my body?”

But now Mr Kennedy has come to attention for a different reason.

On Friday he posted a video to his Instagram where he appears to have the support of Ray Graham, who went viral when speaking about the problem of dangerous dogs in his neighbourhood of Marsfield – which is in the Bennelong electorate – 12 years ago.

Liberal candidate Simon Kennedy appears to have the endorsement of Ray Graham.

His impression of the snarling of the dogs on A Current Affair gained national attention.

In the new Instagram video Mr Graham does his famous barking in Mr Kennedy’s ear and then says “vote Kennedy”.

“It was great to bump into barking dog man. He has a message for you: Vote Kennedy!” the caption says.

Bennelong, which covers Sydney’s lower north shore, is held by the Liberal Party on a margin of 6.9 per cent and has only been won by Labor once since it was created in 1949.

That was when Maxine McKew astoundingly beat Prime Minister John Howard in 2007.

Labor has announced Jerome Laxale as their candidate at the election, a councillor who has previously served as the mayor of Ryde.

Mr Kennedy is a partner at consulting firm McKinsey.

He released a statement after the video about him talking about vaccine mandates was uncovered by the ABC.

In it he said he and his family were vaccinated.

“My support for our vaccination program is strongly informed by my wife’s work as an infectious disease doctor, who worked on the Covid response as a clinician and researcher,” the statement said.

“Blanket mandates are a complex and emotive issue, and I think it’s important that we have respectful conversations even with people that have different views than your own and help to stop the spread of disinformation.”

Originally published as A Current Affair barking dog man puts forward his endorsement for Liberal candidate