Scandals hit tainted Tasmania election campaign

Tasmania’s volatile election campaign has been rocked by shocking new ­revelations.

Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Tasmania’s volatile election campaign has been rocked by shocking new ­revelations, with police investigating an apparently false statutory declaration accusing a minister of pedophilia, and a Labor candidate being accused of ­offensive social media posts.

The Weekend Australian understands Tasmania Police are ­investigating a detailed statutory declaration, purportedly made by a woman alleging she was abused as a child by a senior Liberal minister. It has been circulated to Labor politicians, one or more of whom it appears forwarded it to the police, who suspect it is a fake.

“Police are reviewing a copy of a document as there are concerns about the authenticity of the document,” a spokeswoman said.

The Weekend Australian understands there is no record of the existence of the woman whose name appears on the statement.

A northern Tasmanian Justice of the Peace whose name appears as a witness on the document told The Weekend Australian he was “not at all satisfied” it was genuine.

“My information is that it (the alleged complainant) is a non-­person,” he said.

Other smears have been made against the minister, who is understood to have taken civil action to restrain a person from making false accusations.

Tasmanian Labor candidate Samuel Mitchell.

It is not yet clear whether police will have grounds to charge anyone over the document.

Meanwhile, a Labor candidate, chosen to replace another Labor candidate dumped for sending “vulgar” text messages, is now under pressure to quit over alleged lewd social media posts.

Samuel Mitchell was on Thursday announced as Labor’s replacement candidate in the seat of Clark for party president Ben McGregor, who quit on Wednesday after confirming he sent “inappropriate” texts to a woman.

The Weekend Australian has received past Facebook posts that appear to have been made by Mr Mitchell, including one from January 2020 featuring an Australian-themed dildo and an image of the Black Summer bushfires, with the comment: “Australia: it’s time to get f..ked.”

Another from March 2020 exclaims “F..k Easter anyway”. One made in June 2020, relating to the black lives matter campaign, appears to advocate violence: “In ­circumstances such as this, anger and violence may be the only thing that brings about change”.

The Liberals called for Mr Mitchell to be dumped. “These lewd, crude and offensive posts are not what Tasmanians expect of their elected parliamentary representatives,” said Liberal campaign spokesman Michael Ferguson.

“Labor leader Rebecca White has sacked her Clark candidate for a vulgar text message he sent seven years ago, yet replaced him with a hand-picked candidate who shared a series of vulgar messages on his social media platform — ­including disgraceful pictures representing Australia.

“If Rebecca White stands by her principles and leadership in relation to “fit and proper” candidates, she must immediately disendorse Mr Mitchell.”

Mr Mitchell, Ms White and ALP state secretary Stuart Benson are yet to respond to requests for comment. Mr Mitchell appeared to have deleted his Facebook account on Friday after questions from The Weekend Australian.

The Liberals have also been rocked by the loss of a candidate who attended anti-lockdown rallies, as well as police action against a former minister for alleged firearm storage offences.