Liberal candidate Peter Killin resigns over anti-LGBTI comments and attack on Tim Wilson
Image: Image: Liberal Party of Australia.
Victorian Liberal candidate Peter Killin has resigned over making anti-LGBTI comments and endorsing an attack on Liberal colleague Tim Wilson.
In December, Killin commented on a post by American-born far-right Christian blogger Bill Muehlenberg, who is also a former secretary of the Family Council of Victoria, The Age reported.
Killin was found to have responded to a comment calling Wilson, the Liberal Member for Goldstein, “that notorious homosexual”, endorsing the sentiment and calling for a grassroots movement in the party to prevent gay men from being preselected by the party.
Killin responded to a comment calling for the party’s right to “remove preselection from that notorious homosexual Tim Wilson”, writing that the commenter’s “observations about Mr T Wilson, federal member for Goldstein are most pertinent at this point.”
“Many of us will recall he was the openly homosexual who proposed to his boyfriend in parliment [sic],” Killin wrote.
On the same post, Killin described euthanasia, abortion and “gender ideologies” as “evil”.
“My suggestion is to change a party from within: 1. Infiltrate 2. Influence 3. Impel. Pray and Do,” Killin wrote.
Killin also made a public submission to the Ruddock review into religious freedoms, in which he wrote that the “dangers and health risks” of homosexuality are “a statement of fact”.
He also cited the Australian Christian Lobby in decrying a “sick ideology” that would see LGBTI-inclusive education become the norm.
Wilson responded by saying he would “turn the other cheek and leave judgment to others.”
“I’ve been absolutely consistent from preselection to election to seeking re-election that I’m a forward-looking, modern Liberal proudly representing a forward-looking modern liberal community and that won’t change,” Wilson said.
Killin was due to contest the seat of Wills, which is currently by Labor MP Peter Khalil, but was not the first candidate to be preselected for a tilt at the electorate.
The automative industry worker was chosen to replace the original candidate, who was dumped due to concerns over her eligibility to sit in parliament under Section 44, which has seen a raft of MPs forced to resign over their citizenship.
“For the Liberal Party in this day and age when there is social media, multiple posting, that represents new challenges in the vetting of candidates,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said of Killin’s resignation.
“This is something I will be expecting the party to be working on and improving their processes.”
Greens candidate for Wills Adam Pulford wrote on Twitter that he was alarmed by Killin’s comments, having spent the day standing next to him at pre-polling.
“I’ve been standing next to Peter Killin at pre-poll today. It’s strange to think he harbours so much hatred to me, just because of who I am,” he said.
“Peter Killin wants to keep people like me out of Parliament, because of my sexuality. I want to keep people like Peter Killin out of Parliament, because people like him seek public office to spread hate about people like me.”
I grew up closeted in a conservative church & community. I know what it’s like to feel different, like I’m wrong & don’t belong. It took me years to come out. It’s hatred like that pushed by Liberal Peter Killin that makes it harder for young people to be proud of who they are
— Adam Pulford (@adampulford) May 1, 2019
Earlier this week another Liberal candidate in Victoria, Gurpal Singh, was forced to apologise for past comments calling marriage equality “against nature” and “an issue of paedophilia”.
Another Liberal candidate was dumped by the party today over a vehement anti-Muslim rant.
Singh has not resigned or been removed from preselection by the Liberal Party.
Surprise, surprise! The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Pretty amazing stuff in this day and age. Like the Israel Folau crap this just goes to show how shit Christians are at modern history.
Sectarian tensions between catholic and protestant Christians were a big political and social issue in Australia right through into the 1960’s. The English spent literally hundreds of years battling through similar tensions before finally deciding the best way to go was to exclude religion from political decision-making, and adopting a more secular approach. It has been of great improvement to our political discourse that we have leaned to do the same since the 1970’s.
But now Christians are falling over themselves to adopt more religion in politics, even though this will increase tensions between them. Folau in his insta-post condemned catholics to hell (he includes catholics in ‘idolators’), yet catholic commentators raced to his defence because they are literally too stupid to understand Folau’s intentions. Of course these same catholic commentators pretend their own religion doesn’t condemn Folau to hell for not being baptised into the catholic faith, because they’re really stupid and hypocrites to boot.
The hard core Christians infiltrating the Liberal Party are simply embarrassing it. There will be ugly recriminations after the election.
Christians with no grasp of English or Australian history like Eric Abetz think secularism is a lefty, atheist agenda. Those of us who grasp history know that Michael Kirby is correct – our democracy (with its English historical roots) has evolved to be secular because nobody wins religious wars, especially voters.
It seems the Liberals and Nationals simply don’t want to win on May 18th. They must have known of this creeps – just looking at him makes my skin crawl – was homophobic. If he had been pre-selected during the time either John Howard or even more notorious homophobe, xenophobe Tony Abbott it might have been expected but he wasn’t. Surely the fools running the Liberal Party are well aware that this attitude of hatred and loathing – actually it is Fear – by this ultra-right-wing neo-fascist is no longer acceptable to the vast majority of people in Australia.
Ultra-right-wing, self-proclaimed Christian, he is no such thing as he knows nothing about Jesus Christ’s teachings, – Bill Muehlenberg – who is American not been charged with Hate Crimes as a result of his hate-filled statements? He can’t deny he made those statements because he did so publicly. He is therefore Guilty of committing Hate Crimes and should be deported.