Heated exchange at lord mayor forum in Southbank sparks war of words between rival teams

Deputy lord mayoral candidate Roshena Campbell has called out rival lord mayoral hopeful Arron Wood after a heated exchange at a voters’ forum, triggering a war of words between three teams.

Deputy lord mayoral candidate Roshena Campbell has called out lord mayoral hopeful Arron Wood after he landed himself in a heated exchange at a voters’ forum.

Most of the candidates in the race for lord mayor fronted the forum for Southbank residents last Thursday night, fielding questions from the floor.

In one exchange, a member of the public asked Mr Wood: “Your deputy candidate is saving money all the way in a tax haven in Monaco and yet you want to run for lord mayor. How can we trust a man like you or a deputy candidate..?”

Wood replied: “Do you want to be sued, buddy, for that? Because that’s completely erroneous. What you are saying, that’s completely wrong.”

The member of the public – who can now be revealed as a volunteer from fellow candidate Anthony Koutoufides’ team – was asked by the moderator of the forum if he was from Southbank, to which he replied “one suburb over”.

Roshena Campbell is running with Lord Mayor Nick Reece. Picture: David Smith

Ms Campbell, who is running with Lord Mayor Nick Reece, considered Mr Wood’s rival in the lord mayoral race, said she believed his response was not appropriate.

“If Arron Wood can’t handle a simple question from a constituent without getting aggressive, how can he handle the pressure of being lord mayor?” she told the Herald Sun.

“The type of behaviour we had at Town Hall when Arron Wood was deputy to Robert Doyle was inappropriate and wrong — I don’t think anyone wants that to return.”

However, a Team Wood spokesman revealed that the man who asked the question was a member of Team Kouta.

“This person, by his own admission, was not a Southbank resident and was not there to take part in the candidates’ debate in good faith as he was a member of Team Kouta,” the spokesman said.

“Arron Wood stood up for his deputy candidate Erin Deering against defamatory comments made by this person.”

A Team Kouta spokesman confirmed that it was one of their volunteers who asked the question, saying they “subsequently apologised”.

“We … do not condone this behaviour,” the spokesman said.

Arron Wood and Erin Deering. Picture: Kit Edwards

Mr Wood’s running mate, Erin Deering, along with her former partner Craig Ellis grew their cult swimsuit brand Triangl to a company valued at $US200m more than 10 years ago.

Last month, the Herald Sun reported Ms Deering had boasted in her book, Hanging by a Thread, about minimising her income tax by living in tax ­havens while building the business.

In the book, Ms Deering said she set up Triangl in “tax-positive jurisdictions”.

“The appeal of Monaco for us, aside from it being a beautiful town on the French Riviera, was the favourable and well-known tax perk of zero per cent personal tax,” she said.

“I won’t dance around the fact that the tax scenario was appealing, and absolutely this played into our decision to live there.”

When previously asked by the Herald Sun about her attitudes towards tax in the book, Ms Deering said: “Any suggestion I’ve breached tax laws is wrong.”

Lord Mayor Nick Reece (left) and Arron Wood traded barbs at the VCCI lord mayoral breakfast forum at Crown. Pic: Jessica Hooper

In 2016, Ms Deering left Triangl and sold her half of the label. She returned to Melbourne – where she has since resided – and set up a new fashion label, Deering.

Ms Campbell’s comments follow weeks of tit-for-tats between Mr Reece, Mr Wood and their teams, with the pair trading barbs over their election promises last week.

But the race is about to enter its final week, with voters required to post their ballots by October 25.

Originally published as Heated exchange at lord mayor forum in Southbank sparks war of words between rival teams