NT Police Minister Brent Potter retains Chief Minister’s support, apologises for offensive posts

Brent Potter fronted the press over deleted Facebook posts one week after accusations of buying shares based on insider knowledge.

Northern Territory Police Minister Brent Potter has apologised for sharing social media material promoting anti-Semitism, racism, sexism and homophobia as the opposition called for him to resign.

The Labor MLA was backed by Chief Minister Eva Lawler, who said he would not leave government.

Mr Potter came under fire on Wednesday following the release of ­deleted Facebook posts that included quotations from Nazi general Erwin Rommel and shared an article headed: “It’s time to ­arrest ultra-Orthodox Jews who delay flights over seating.”

He had also reposted a meme praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and a video about how to “destroy” the Black Lives Matter movement.

On Wednesday, Mr Potter defended his conduct, saying he had grown beyond the views he previously held. “Like most people, in my past I have posted or shared controversial content on Facebook but that does not mean I ever agreed with the views expressed in them,” he said.

“These reposts … were between eight and 10 years ago when I was in my 20s, and do not define my views on any subject.”

More deleted posts were released by the NT Independent on Thursday, dating as recent as 2019, three years before his social media accounts were deactivated on the day of his preselection for Territory Labor in 2022

Mr Potter said a 2018 posting insulting former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews was “priceless” and shared material from a number of right-wing commentators from 2013 to 2019.

Brent Potter apologised for his conduct and said he will not resign from government. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In January 2019, Mr Potter shared a post where an armed soldier escorts a woman to safety, the caption of which reads: “Toxic Masculinity … because when the shit hits the fan, no one hides behind a feminist.”

Another contained a homophobic slur.

“I want to apologise to anyone I’ve hurt or embarrassed. The comments that I made in my 20s … aren’t a reflection of who I am today; I’ve done a lot of learning since then,” Mr Potter said at a press conference on Thursday.

“In hindsight, it absolutely hurt some people and I can’t take that back. They were dickhead posts to make and they’ve come back out and hurt people.”

Mr Potter said he had grown past the misogynistic material he had touted, saying he was now a feminist. “I’ve got two daughters, I’ve got my wife, I believe in the movement,” he said, also mentioning his appearance at an International Women’s Day event.

He cited his time in the army as giving him “a very narrow view of the world”.

“Ultimately leaving that organisation … you’re exposed to different parts of society, and that has changed my view of the world,” he said. “Those snippets don’t define me.”

Mr Potter said there “probably are” more offensive posts he had shared that were not yet made public, and defended his reposting of material that lashed the Victorian Labor Party by citing a long-held belief in centrism.

“I’ve always been a centrist, I’ve not grown up in a political party, I’ve not spent a career working with Young Labor or any other (Labor affiliates),” he said. “I’ve come from a background … in the military, I’ve come out of working in the private sector.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin on Wednesday condemned Mr Potter’s conduct, inviting him to meet representatives of the Jewish community to understand the impact of his statements. Mr Potter said on Thursday he would take the advocacy group up on its offer.

The scandal comes after former NT police constable Zachary Rolfe claimed during the inquest into Kumanjayi Walker’s death that racist language was “normalised” within the NT Police Force, leading Mr Potter to say racism had no place within any government organisation or department.