The Sauce: Candidates swap allegiances while others caught in war over ads
How well do you know your local candidate, which teal has opened three offices, and who is under fire in the latest attack ads to screen on TV from Monday? Find out this and more, in The Sauce.
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They have been dubbed the “malcontents”.
Once loyal soldiers to a party, these candidates and campaign managers have defected to support a different side.
While some have been snubbed or dumped by their party, others may have simply seen the light.
In the case of McMahon Liberal candidate Carmen Lazar, the Order of Australia recipient was not too long ago singing the praises of Labor minister Chris Bowen, whose seat she is now trying to claim.
According to an old Labor election flyer we were sent, Lazar is quoted: “Chris has always been a champion of our community’s issues and we need to keep him as our local MP”.
We presume it was published when Lazar was a Labor councillor for Fairfield City Council.
Bowen and Lazar subsequently fell out just before the last state election when the Albanese government minister backed former Australian Federal Police agent David Saliba for the seat of Fairfield.
Further west we have Werriwa Liberal candidate Sam Kayal, who was also a member of the Labor Party.
Bradfield independent Andy Yin was also a member of the Liberals before falling out.
Dumped Liberal candidate for Whitlam Ben Britton, who was disendorsed after comments he made in a podcast declaring the Australian Defence Force (ADF) needed to “remove females from combat corps” in order to “fix” the military, is also now running as an independent.
And while former Howard-era minister Philip Ruddock is said to be helping Liberal candidates in Bennelong and Reid, his wife Heather has quit the party and thrown her support behind a community independent in Berowra.
OFFICE OPENINGS
How many offices does it take to run a “teal” campaign.
In the case of Warringah independent MP Zali Steggall – three.
While Steggall’s northern Sydney electorate is significantly smaller than many others – Liberal MP for Durack Melissa Price has only three offices despite her 1.4 million sq km electorate being significantly bigger than Warringah at 51 sq km – northern Sydney voters recently noted the opening of yet another “teal” office.
A spokeswoman for Ms Steggall explained the purpose of each office.
“Zali’s electorate office is in Manly,” she said.
“The Mosman Community Hub (paid for through donations, not public funds) offers a convenient spot for north shore constituents to drop in and meet with Zali.”
As for the new office in Neutral Bay, it is “a campaign office”.
Hopefully the lights are energy efficient.
NOT FUNNY
A third party group calling itself Better Australia is set to roll out a series of ads on commercial TV, attacking a Greens candidate who joked about Hitler.
Comedian Mandy Nolan had been videoing herself reading an opinion piece that had been published in the independent newspaper Byron Shire Echo, in which she discusses the frustration of explaining to her teenage daughter the need to balance fun and responsibility when she made the comment.
“Just look at Hitler. He had fun. He did whatever he wanted to do,” she said in a YouTube video uploaded in 2011.
“Just ask six million Jews how they feel about that now and he still didn’t get his sociopathic fill – you just can’t do it, it’s unethical.”
Nolan later quipped that Australian cricketer Shane Warne’s death had saved her from being cancelled over the comments
Despite the comments making their way to the media as she contested the Labor-held seat of Richmond at the last federal election, Nolan – who apologised for the remarks – increased her vote.
With Nolan running again, Better Australia is unleashing a series of attack ads to run on Nine and Ten from Monday, asking voters to put the Greens last.
The ads recount her reaction to the Hitler comment being published in The Australian.
“I went, I’m f....d,” Nolan is quoted in the ad.
“I’m waiting for it to hit and then get completely smashed. And I look at my newsfeed and it just says ‘Shane Warne dies’.
“And I went ‘f..k yes!”
The ads were authorised by Better Australia spokeswoman Sophie Calland, who accused the Greens of preaching compassion, but “joked about Hitler” and “mocked Shane Warne’s death”.
It is no surprise Nolan is under fire given she poses the greatest threat to incumbent Labor MP Justine Elliot, having gained a 5.0 per cent swing at the last federal election, capturing 25.3 per cent of the vote.
A spokeswoman for Nolan said Richmond voters were ready for a change.
“Richmond’s had the same Labor member for 20 years and, in that time, things have gotten worse, not better,” she said.
IS NOTHING ‘SACRED’?
An unholy war has erupted between the Liberals and Climate 200 over campaign material being run on Meta on Good Friday.
The Liberal Party told The Sunday Telegraph that it had paused election advertising out of respect for the religious holiday while noting that the “teal” independents had continued to broadcast hundreds of ads.
The tally included 91 ads for Bradfield “teal” Nicolette Boele, 130 for Sophie Scamps in Mackellar, 110 for Allegra Spender in Wentworth and 34 for Zali Steggall in Warringah.
Some of the teals even had paid ads only starting on Good Friday, while a Scamps ad informed viewers of pre-poll being open.
But when asked about the appropriateness of having election advertising on Good Friday, Climate 200 claimed “Coalition candidates” were also broadcasting ads, including frontbenchers Anne Ruston, Michael McCormack and David Coleman.
A Liberal spokesman noted that McCormack was “a Nat” while the others had since paused their ads.
Senator James Paterson accused the “teals” of “bombarding” people at Easter.
“Good Friday is not a day for politics,” he said.
“But teal politicians like Sophie Scamps are deliberately bombarding people with hundreds of ads when many Australians are observing a solemn day of worship or spending time with family.
“Apparently nothing is sacred for the teals.”
A Climate 200 spokesman said not only were the Coalition running ads on Good Friday, so were their “front” groups like Advance and Australians for Prosperity, who were pumping “thousands of dollars into their online misinformation campaigns targeting pro-climate independents on the same day”.
“If you can’t be trusted to understand or tell the truth about something as simple as the ads your MPs are running on social media, you can’t be trusted to run the country,” he said.
SPOTTED
Tanya “I should’ve done the elbow bump” Plibersek at the Seymour Centre on Saturday with husband Michael Coutts-Trotter for the final show of The Wharf Revue, which wrapped up after 25 years. Among pollies to be roasted included Angus Taylor “Swift”, the “teals” and Albo, of course.
Got some Sauce? Contact linda.silmalis@news.com.au
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