Jessica Whelan claims to have received death threats, will stand as independent

Jessica Whelan says she’s had death threats and will run as an independent.

Jessica Whelan with Scott Morrison at an Agriculture festival yesterday. Picture Gary Ramage.

Dumped Liberal candidate Jessica Whelan claims to have received death threats against herself and her children and has confirmed she will sit as an independent if elected but pledged to work with her former party.

Ms Whelan, who quit after being linked to a series of anti-Islamic social media posts, said the past 48 hours had been “an extremely difficult period for my family”.

“I have been receiving threats to the level I could never have imagined,” the former Liberal candidate for the Tasmanian seat of Lyons saids in a statement.

“Phone calls, voicemails, messages and emails have made those close to me startled and afraid. These have included messages to kill my children and myself.

“It saddens me that people who put their hand up to represent the people of Australia are subjected to such vicious personal attacks from their opposition, born directly from their fear of losing.

“I want to thank the many people who have supported me and those who continue to support me and my family and I look forward to continue contributing to the community.”

Ms Whelan said “there’s a good chance” she would work with the Liberal Party if elected, as she confirmed she would run as an independent.

“I’m still on the ballot paper, so I guess that makes me an independent,” she was quoted as telling The Examiner newspaper.

“I have put in so much effort and I feel free of the Liberals to defend myself … If I’m elected, there’s a good chance I will work with the Liberal Party. I resigned because I knew I had to for the party, but I can now defend myself.”

She said she did not want to be seen as a Pauline Hanson figure. “We are very different people,” she said. “We live in a multicultural society and I love that about Australia.”

Ms Whelan has denied some of the anti-Muslim posts attributed to her in recent days, but admits she did write other posts including one revealed today where she supported a referendum to ban Muslims from Australia.

She said she planned to take legal action in relation to some of the posts falsely attributed to her.

“I admit to making some ill-advised and misinformed comments in the past, but I absolutely deny making a particularly vile post as reported yesterday,’’ she said. “A number of the other posts which have been reported are also not mine.”

A Liberal Party spokesman today said the party did not know about Ms Whelan’s other posts and will now ask voters to back the Nationals candidate in the marginal Apple Isle seat.

“Jess Whelan vehemently maintains she did not make the vulgar post reported in yesterday’s media,” a Liberal party spokesman said.

“However, she accepts she made some of the other posts in question.

“Clearly these posts are inappropriate, and the Liberal Party was not aware of their existence until they were reported.

“Therefore, she has offered her resignation as a candidate and the Liberal Party has accepted it.’’

The Coalition is now urging Liberal voters in the sprawling seat, held by Labor’s Brian Mitchell with a 3.8 per cent margin, to instead vote Nationals.

#BREAKING: Yesterday she was an embattled candidate - now she’s a former candidate. Jessica Whelan pulls out admitting she made anti-Muslim and anti-refugee comments. But maintains yesterday’s comment was fake. @SkyNewsAust pic.twitter.com/TJzaKrCpyI

— James O'Doherty (@jmodoh) May 2, 2019

Earlier, Coalition Campaign Spokesman Simon Birmingham said he expected her to go.

“More information has come to light and the state executive of the Liberal Party are taking steps to deal with this candidate,” he told the Nine Network this morning.

“We’re not going to tolerate racist comments … that had not been declared or disclosed by the candidate previously. And we won’t tolerate that or accept that.

“I expect based on information that has come to light overnight — the additional information — that she’ll not continue to be the Liberal candidate,” he told the Nine Network this morning.

Scott Morrison yesterday backed Ms Whelan as she denied the online comments, which included suggestions women who support Islam should be mutilated and sold as slaves.

But this morning, more posts emerged including one where Ms Whelan appeared to back a referendum into banning Muslim migrants from Australia.

Ms Whelan, who claims to be the victim of “digitally altered images”, fled the media yesterday at an awkward event with Scott Morrison and has said she planned to refer the posts to the Australian Federal Police.

The Australian Federal Police are yet to confirm whether they received a referral from the Liberal Party over Ms Whelan

However new material reported by the Hobart Mercury today put her under intense pressure.

“I care about our safety,” she allegedly wrote in response to a comment by former One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts. “How about we have a referendum on whether or not we close our borders to Muslims? Now that I could vote for.”

In a second, she commented on refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and Iraq: “Don’t bloody send them to Tasmania. We don’t want them.”

Ms Whelan and the Liberal Party both sent statements yesterday denying the comments were made and that the images were “digitally altered.” The Prime Minister backed his candidate in the key Tasmanian seat yesterday.

But Tasmanian Opposition Leader Rebecca White told The Mercury she was prepared to provide sworn evidence that the posts — some of which were allegedly posted on her facebook page by Ms Whelan — were real.

“The comments that were left on my Facebook page were quite clearly left by Jessica Whelan. They are racist, they are intolerable and they were not doctored,” she said.

“They were quite clearly left there for all to see. I have no doubt she has probably deleted them by now, but we have copies of those.

“I am absolutely 100 per cent sure that those comments made by Jessica Whelan on my Facebook page, those racist, intolerable comments, are true and accurate and are reflective of a pattern of behaviour by her that shows she has views that are intolerable and she cannot continue on as an endorsed Liberal candidate in Lyons.”

Ms Whelan joins a string of Liberal candidates forced out this week over offensive comments made online.

This week, the Liberals lost two candidates in the Victorian seats of Wills and Isaacs, Peter Killin and Jeremy Hearn, for anti-gay and anti-Muslim online rants respectively.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese this morning accused Scott Morrison of being involved in a cover-up over Ms Whelan.

The Prime Minister yesterday said the matter was being referred to the AFP and that he did believe images could be doctored and candidates’ social media could be hacked.

“Scott Morrison was personally involved and brought into this argument and was involved in an attempted cover-up,” Mr Albanese told the Nine Network.

“They said these posts were fake, that was on the news last night.”

Labor has had its own troubles with its Melbourne candidate Luke Creasey under pressure to quit over lewd jokes he posted on his Facebook page.

Morrison stands by candidate

It emerged yesterday that two Facebook comments bearing Ms Whelan’s name said women who supported Islam should be ­mutilated and sold as slaves and Muslims should not be allowed to live in Australia.

The controversy came days after a Liberal candidate in Victoria was dumped for making Islamophobic comments online and another quit for posting homophobic rants.

At the Agfest event yesterday Mr Morrison briefly shook her hand but avoided standing directly next to Ms Whelan. The candidate followe­d Mr Morrison around during the visit but was shielded from media by Liberal staff and other candidates.

Ms Whelan was hurried into a car to prevent her from answering questions about her social media history and views on Islam.

In Tasmanian parliament yesterday, Ms White said anti-Muslim comments under Ms Whelan’s name on her Facebook page read: “Given that your profile states you went to college at ‘Never lose hope in ALLAH’ … I hope you’re bloody NOT on our housing waiting list. You shouldn’t even be in Australia if you believe in ALLAH.”

Asked in parliament about the anti-Muslim comments, Liberal Premier Will Hodgman said: "There is no doubt that those words (in relation to mutilation), if used … that they should not be endorsed­ as a candidate."

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said Ms Whelan deserved due process.

“I'm not privy to those conversations or investigations but I'm sure that they are being done in a thorough way," he told the ABC.

He said only a minority of Australians held the views espoused in the posts: “They're not views I hold in any way, shape or form, and I don't think any, or the majority of, Australians, would.’’

Labor MP Julie Collins, the member for the Tasmanian seat of Franklin, called on Mr Morrison to disendorse Ms Whelan.

“Her comments are Islamophobic. They must be condemned in the strongest possible language,”­ she said yesterday. “The Liberal Party has been taken over by radical right-wing extremists. This is the sort of thing you would expect from Pauline Hanson, not from the Tasmanian Liberal Party.

“Scott Morrison must immediately sack the candidate for Lyons for those abhorrent comments.”

In another post on Ms White’s Facebook page, Ms Whelan allegedly complains about public hospitals. “No way. I pay for private health & I want to keep it. I don’t want to be struck going to the RHH, even tho I pay for that too. Having to take my children there is bad enough.

“Maybe make the private hospitals take on more? Why do I have to take my children to the public hospitals when I pay a bomb for private health? They should have paediatricians onsite.”