1 week Ago By Matt Wade
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says social media posts made by Liberal candidate Vivek Singha that use a derogatory term for Indigenous Australians are “inappropriate” but has stopped short of dumping him as the party’s candidate for the high-profile western Sydney seat of Fowler. Singha has apologised for a series of offensive social media posts made between August and October 2023 first revealed by ABC News. Peter Dutton won’t say if Liberal candidate Vivek Singha should be dumped over offensive social media posts Credit: Getty Images Multiple posts by Singha used derogatory terminology for First Nations people; in one he claimed: “Everybody needs to wake up to the sleeping lazybags (the Alboriginals).
” Singha told the ABC he “should not have expressed” himself in that way. The revelations have raised questions about campaign literature circulated ahead of Saturday’s federal election by Dai Le, the independent member for Fowler. A how-to-vote flier being distributed by Le ranks Vivek Singha above Labor candidate, Tu Le, One Nation candidate, Tony Margos and Greens candidate, Avery Jacob Howard.
(The flier also says voters should number every box on the ballot “in order of your choice”.) Le would not say whether her campaign will stop distributing the fliers that suggested preferencing Singha over the ALP and other candidates when asked by the Herald on Monday. Independent member for Fowler, Dai Le, and her opponent, Labor candidate Tu Le.
Credit: Kate Geraghty, Janie Barrett Le claimed Labor was “desperately trying to falsely link” her to the Liberal Party. “The reality is simple: I have made it clear on my how to vote that voters should put [1] next to my name — and then number every box in the order they choose,” Le said in a statement to this masthead..
