NSW Liberal candidate praised horse cure for Covid

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has distanced himself from the Liberal Party’s candidate for Maroubra who promoted an unproven drug used on horses as a cure for Covid-19 and denied the existence of climate change.

NSW Liberal candidate for Maroubra, Bill Burst.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has distanced himself from the Liberal Party’s candidate for Maroubra who promoted an unproven drug used on horses as a cure for Covid-19 and denied the existence of climate change, labelling it the “biggest fraud committed”.

Days after the Liberals’ Wyong candidate, Matthew Squires, was disendorsed by party HQ over his homo­phobic and Islamophobic comments, the social media history of Bill Burst, a councillor in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, reveals he has used Facebook to purvey fringe conspiracy theories.

This included touting the merits of Ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug given to horses and cows, as a cure for Covid, in line with Craig Kelly, who abruptly quit the federal Liberal Party in 2021 after continuing to proliferate unproven anti-vaccination theories.

“Maybe you should read up on the millions of peeps that have been saved around the world using Ivermectin … and keep your religious rants for another forum,” the Randwick City Council councillor wrote in 2021.

Responding to another post about Scott Morrison’s decision to pull Mr Kelly into line over his Covid conspiracies, Mr Burst labelled Today Show host Allison Langdon a “disgrace, ill-informed rude bully”, saying: “Craig Kelly has only provided facts, no misinformation … Maybe a bit of real research on the real story instead of her left-wing views.”

Mr Burst was contacted multiple times for comment but declined to respond to texts or calls.

A spokesman for Mr Perrottet said: “These are not the views of the Premier. The Premier is focused on the Liberal and Nationals long-term economic plan to keep NSW moving forward.”

Despite distancing himself from his candidate’s fringe views, there was no sign the premier would move to dump Mr Burst ahead of the election

A spokesman for the NSW Liberal Party did not say whether Mr Burst’s views were known by the party before his endorsement, nor whether it supported his position, instead pointing to the government’s clean-energy policies and Covid response.

The Australian understands Mr Burst supports the government’s position on climate and Covid. But his fringe views are not limited to Covid, with a range of posts denying the existence of climate change.

In one, he reposts a Spectator Australia article titled Climate Change, the art of sophistry, saying it was the “biggest fraud being committed on hard-working ­people”. In another comment on an article from 2021, Mr Burst supported Mr Kelly’s attack on scientists and meteorologists as “brainwashed climate cultists”.

A post from July last year written on his official councillor Facebook profile – “Bill Burst, Randwick City Councillor, South Ward” – compares an article in 1988 warning that rising sea-­levels will threaten the Maldives with plans to open four new airports in 2020. “Don’t let science and the truth get in the way of the narrative,” he writes.

On his council profile, Mr Burst writes that his key objectives are “protect our Yarra Bay and surrounding environment and marine life” and “preserving our green spaces, improving our world-class parks & walking tracks.”

The seat of Maroubra is held by opposition legal affairs spokesman Michael Daley on an 8.3 per cent margin.

The Liberal Party moved to disendorse Mr Squires on Monday after The Australian revealed his history of Twitter and Facebook comments, with one comparing “homosexuality activists” with “Palestinian terrorists”.

The Premier labelled the comments “completely unacceptable”, and a Liberal spokesman said Mr Squires had failed to “make appropriate disclosures” about his social media history.

Mr Burst is the third Coalition candidate brought unstuck by online history in less than a week, after the Nationals Cessnock candidate, Ash Barnham, resigned over sexist and racist tweets made two years ago.