‘Sacked’ worker Alex Michael kept fronting up for Allegra Spender campaign

A paid campaign worker for Allegra Spender, who was sacked after berating a business, has spent the past week working on her campaign.

Alex Michael (left) with Allegra Spender at 04-04-2022 at her North Bondi event Truth+Trust with Kerry O'Brien and Cathy McGowan. Picture: Supplied

A paid campaign worker for independent candidate ­Allegra Spender, who was sacked after berating a business in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, has spent the past week working on her campaign, including her official launch and a talk on “the truth”.

Ms Spender, who is running in the wealthy Sydney seat of Wentworth and has made transparency and integrity key policies of hers, reportedly said on Sunday that Alex Michael would no longer be working on her campaign after his conduct was exposed.

But on Monday, Mr Michael attended with Ms Spender a talk entitled “Truth and Trust” with veteran journalist Kerrie O’Brien and former independent MP Cathy McGowan at the North Bondi life saving club.

On Thursday, Mr Michael was at Ms Spender’s official federal election launch at the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay, directing volunteers and handing out flyers.

Incumbent Wentworth MP Dave Sharma said Mr Michael’s continued presence on Ms Spender’s campaign undermined the independent candidate’s stance on integrity, as well as her calls for a federal anti-corruption body.

“How can you claim to be running on integrity when you cannot manage the simple task of telling the truth?” he said.

“The independent candidate said her campaign staff who had bullied the small business owner had been dismissed.”

Alex Michael (white shirt) with volunteers at Allegra Spender’s official campaign launch at the Intercontinental in Double Bay. Picture: Supplied

Ms Spender said Mr Michael, who was a paid employee, was genuinely remorseful and was serving out his notice period, which ended on Friday.

“He was allowed to complete a number of tasks, which included some logistics for my campaign launch event,” Ms Spender said.

“This has been a difficult period for him and he has shown genuine remorse and has apologised to the business concerned.”

Mr Michael pretended to be a longtime client of an eastern suburbs business, which The Australian has agreed not to name, to complain about a poster of Mr Sharma in the store window. He called the business and told an employee, who had no control over the display of the poster, that he found it inappropriate.

The business owner twigged something was amiss and found no reference to the purported customer in 20 years of digital receipts.

He then plugged the phone number into Google and saw that it belonged to a member of Ms Spender’s campaign.

He said he called Mr Michael, who confessed and seemed genuinely apologetic for his ­behaviour.

The owner said everyone was entitled to their political views and stressed that businesses should not be dragged between candidates during campaigns.

“My staff shouldn’t have people screaming at them,” he said.

In a statement to The Sydney Morning Herald last week, Ms Spender said Mr Michael offered his resignation.

But she told The Weekend Australian on Friday she had requested his resignation.

“While I made the decision to request his resignation I also believe it is important to show compassion to someone who has made a mistake and has taken responsibility for his actions,” she said.

Mr Michael did not return a ­request for comment.