Labor MP and LNP hopeful 'no-show' at Griffith candidate debate
Terri Butler, Labor's sitting MP in Brisbane's inner-city seat of Griffith, has been accused of snubbing the only candidates' debate organised for her seat before the federal election.
Ms Butler was not alone in brushing off the organisers of the debate, staged by the West End Community Association. The LNP's candidate Olivia Roberts, One Nation's Julie Darlington, Christian Julius from Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party and Tony Murray from Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party all ignored the debate.
Ms Butler stayed at home on Tuesday night to make phone calls to constituents instead of attending the debate at Souths Leagues Club in West End, her campaign manager Peter Allen confirmed.
In a statement read out to the crowd of about 80 to 90 somewhat-stunned voters, Ms Butler said she was too busy "fighting the Tories" to attend.
Ms Butler holds Griffith - former prime minister Kevin Rudd's old seat - with a narrow margin of 1.4 per cent.
"I understand you have a mixture of Senate and minor party candidates for the election present tonight, but, as you know, the only other candidate with a genuine chance of winning Griffith has refused to attend," Ms Butler's statement read.
"My focus is not on opposing minor party and Senate candidates. It’s on delivering for the community and fighting the Tories.
"The federal election is just 11 days away, and I’m spending every available minute fighting to stop the LNP from winning Griffith."
Greens candidate Max Chandler-Mather said he was astonished Ms Butler did not "bother to turn up".
"To have our sitting member not turn up to the only candidates' debate in the entire election, in the entire electorate, and to snub the entire community like that, is honestly a really grave insult," he said.
Several members of the audience could be heard mumbling angrily about Ms Butler as Mr Chandler-Mather spoke.
Other candidates at the debate were Senate independent candidate Jane Hasler, Karagh-Mae Kelly from the Animal Justice Party, Miles Whiticker from the Pirate Party and Cameron Murray from Sustainable Australia Party.
WECA president Erin Evans said the May 7 date was finalised on April 10 after Ms Butler had been asked for her preferred date.
She said she was advised 30 minutes before the debate began that Ms Butler would not attend, because Ms Roberts was not coming to the debate. Other candidates gave no advice.
Ms Evans received the statement from Ms Butler after the debate had started and she read it out after independent candidates had spoken for two minutes each.
The statement did not mention the Greens - who were expected to press Labor heavily in parts of the electorate - but mentioned One Nation, Clive Palmer, Fraser Anning and the LNP.
"This election is a choice between myself and our united Labor team, focused on investing in health, education and delivering serious action on climate change, not just talking about it, or a coalition of cuts and chaos between Hanson, Palmer or Anning, and the LNP."
Then came about 90 minutes of questions about overdevelopment, house prices, means to create more affordable housing, the tension over Adani's proposed coal mine, Cleveland's Toondah Harbour development, mental health policies, Australia's live animal export trade, uranium mining and climate change policies.
One attendee asked the candidates to discuss the "huge elephant in the room", referring to the Labor and LNP no-show at the debate.
"I think that at a time when political disengagement and political disillusionment is at record levels and the loss of trust in our politicians has reached record levels, this is just really disappointing," Mr Chandler-Mather said.
"Honestly, I think Griffith deserves better representation than that."
Ms Hasler said she believed Ms Butler was invited to a different debate at the Powerhouse, but that was rejected by her campaign manager Mr Allen.
"She wasn't there. She was telephoning constituents," he said.
Mr Allen said Ms Butler did not attend because Ms Roberts did not attend.
"It's no debate if you are only debating the people who can't win."