Candidates for the upcoming council election are withdrawing from a panel discussion, saying they refuse to share a platform with an avowed Neo-Nazi.
The forum has been organised by a new ratepayer group with plans to go ahead next week.
The fledgling Busselton and Regions Ratepayers Association (BARRA), confirmed it sent invitations to all Council candidates, including Stephen Wells, who associates with the National Socialist Network.
Wells was arrested earlier this year in Adelaide when participating in a Neo-Nazi rally. He spent several months behind bars before prosecutors dropped the charges.
Candidates Thomas Chadwick, Tiffany Van Halen, Councillor Mikayla Love and Clare Paine have withdrawn from the event in protest, saying they refuse to legitimise anti-Semitism, white supremacy and attacks on LGBTI communities. They say the invitation to Wells is unconscionable.
“When this individual stood for Council two years ago, the Busselton Chamber of Commerce held a community election forum but denied him entry. BCC took an ethical position in 2023, and BARRA should set the same example in 2025,” Chadwick said.
Tiffany Van Halen said BARRA was making the excuse that Wells has been approved by the Electoral Commission, but said the community group was not under any compulsion to even hold a forum and had full control over who they invited anyway. “BARRA cannot wash its hands of this decision.”
Cr. Mikayla Love said Wells’ “deeply offensive” comments about women in politics meant she refused to share a stage with him, and would not participate in any forum that sought to give his campaign credibility.
“As a mum working hard on Council, I will not allow others to demean the role of women in public life,” she said.
Mayor snubbed
In a media release Clare Paine said she asked Busselton Mayor, Phill Cronin, if he could raise this with BARRA, only to be advised that BARRA had repeatedly refused the Mayor to become a member. This had denied him access to a social community function last month to discuss local council issues.
“BARRA has snubbed the Mayor of the City from joining as a member, but has invited a Neo-Nazi to speak at its forum.
“This is outrageous. BARRA has lost its moral compass and any claims of non-bias,” Paine said.
Candidates shunning the forum said allowing Wells to participate had nothing to do with democracy or freedom of speech. They said Nazism was the opposite of democracy and hate speech was not free speech.
Paine called on BARRA not to legitimise Neo-NAZI candidates by normalising their campaigns or handing them a microphone.
Wells responds to boycott
Speaking to local newspaper the Busselton Dunsborough Times Stephen Wells said the other candidates had shown that they did not want to participate in democracy.
He commented to the newspaper, “one has to wonder why they are running for council in the first place”.
OUTinPerth approached the Busselton Area Rate Players and Residents Association for comment.
