Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to draw the attention of the chamber to information recently published on a candidate that the Greens and Labor are supporting at the Aston by-election. I am deeply concerned by these reports because, if they are true, on Saturday Labor and the Greens will ask the voters of Aston to preference a candidate who has advocated for murdering infants, who has defended terrorists and who says the Unabomber did nothing wrong.

Mr Owen Miller is the Fusion Party candidate at the Aston by-election, and today as pre-poll is being conducted in that seat the Labor Party and the Greens have preferenced Mr Miller third on their how-to-vote card. They've decided that Roshena Campbell, an accomplished lawyer representing small and local businesses and an elected city councillor is a less worthy choice than this man. Today the Labor Party and the Greens have revealed what they really think of the people of Aston. They are political fodder, preference generators who should be treated with less respect than choosing their next representative.

This candidate preferenced by Labor and the Greens should be condemned for his appalling views, and Labor and the Greens can condemn those views today. For example, the candidate preference by Labor and the Greens said in a tweet:

I think that abortion is murder, but that it should be legal anyway even months after birth—sad but realistic

He supported the opinion that terrorists were right. He said that their motives are justifiable. The man preferenced by Labor and the Greens has written an article 'What the Unabomber got right' in which he writes that to consider the Unabomber a crazy person is intellectually dishonest. He has also said that he agrees with the Unabomber that many modern humans lead meaningless lives. The level of disrespect this candidate has shown for human life is only matched by the level of disrespect that Labor and the Greens show for the people of Aston. Take this man off your how-to-vote cards. Preference him last. (Time expired)