Labor admits toning down “racist” leaflet
An early draft of Labor’s controversial election leaflet in the marginal seat of Elder was never authorised because it was deemed potentially defamatory.
The pamphlet, which has since been referred to the Australian Human Rights Commission for allegedly breaching the Racial Discrimination Act, caused outrage in the dying days of the campaign, with the Liberals branding it a “thinly-veiled racist attack” for negatively highlighting the ethnicity of their candidate, Carolyn Habib.
Labor figures, including Premier Jay Weatherill, have dismissed those complaints. But the ALP was concerned enough to modify an earlier version of the leaflet, which state secretary Reggie Martin has confirmed was changed on legal advice.
It’s understood the changes did not affect the most hotly-disputed section of the pamphlet, in which the words “Can you trust Habib?” are superimposed on a crumbling façade.
Instead, phrasing was changed in relation to the published claims that “Since Habib was elected to Marion council rates have increased by 18 per cent” and that she “will scrap a $100 million upgrade of Flinders Medical”.
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The promised upgrade was since scrapped anyway in Labor’s subsequent budget, although an alternative upgrade plan was outlined last week as part of the Government’s “Transforming Health” plan.
Martin told InDaily: “All materials go through a clearance process where they are checked to make sure that they comply with the Electoral Act, and can have no possibility of legal action attached to them. It is not uncommon for pieces submitted to be changed during this process.”
The Premier has publicly and repeatedly stood by the contentious leaflet, while Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis recently tweeted: “I do not believe our campaign was racist.”
“I’ve lived (racism)…I won’t be lectured on racism by Liberal MPs,” he wrote.
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“I know it when I see it and that flyer ain’t it.”
However InDaily understands other senior ALP powerbrokers were furious when they saw the leaflet, and even more so to learn it had already been distributed.
It’s also understood the ensuing controversy prompted irate phone calls to Labor candidate Annabel Digance’s campaign manager, Tim Picton, a Labor staffer who now works for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picton has previously come to public attention when Weatherill was forced to apologise to Liberal MP Andrew Southcott, whom Picton wrongly claimed on social media was holidaying in Fiji during the 2013 federal campaign.
Picton today told InDaily: “Any questions about material from the ALP should be directed to party office”.
Martin would not reflect further on the Elder campaign while the Human Rights Commission review was ongoing, saying only that the party would “fully cooperate with the process”.
Federal Labor MP for Chifley Ed Husic, who is Muslim, publicly voiced his “apoplexy” at the time of the controversy, saying “it was a terribly constructed brochure that had a focus on her surname instead of a legitimate question about a public office record”.
“When the dust settles on this election, we should be taking a hard look at the people who constructed this pamphlet,” he said.
Carolyn Habib has not responded to a request for comment.
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