The Liberal party is standing by a candidate in the South Australian election who has made a string of outrageous comments about gay and transgender people, women and Muslims.
Carston Woodhouse is running for the seat of Wright in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. The candidate has taken in part in several episodes of the evangelical American religious podcast ElijahFire where he’s made a series of provocative statements.
The sitting member for the seat, Labor’s Blair Boyer highlighted his opponents many comments during a media call on Wednesday.
“There’s this whole reality pretending that same-sex marriage is real — it’s not, it ignores decades of the reality of observations that marriage is between a man and a woman”. Woodhouse said in the recording.
“Who knows what demonic realms we have opened up to the world, to our self on the earth when you forsake it, when you accept homosexuality,”
He also described feminism as being “demonic” and shared his view that women who are raped or victims of incest should be forced to carry any pregnancy to term, rather than giving the option of abortion.
The candidate also claims the people need to see the “insanity of the trans agenda” and understand that “Islam is poisonous and wrong”.
In the discussion the candidate said God had spoken to him and told him to change Australian culture.
Liberal leader Ashton Hurn is standing by Woodhouse and continuing to support his pitch to be the the next member for Wright.
“At the end of the day he is our candidate.” Hurn said on Wednesday afternoon. The Liberal leader said she did share his views, and the comments did not sit well with her.
“He’s allowed to have his views, I’m not going to stop someone from having an opinion.” Hurn said defending Woodhouse. The Liberal leader said ultimately it would be up to voters to pass judgement.
“It’ll be up to the voters to reflect on people’s individual views, that’ll be a matter for the voters.”
Blair Boyer said it was clear that the Liberal party was not vetting their candidates and had allowed fringe views to take centre stage in their election campaign.
“The ramifications of having such a shambolic pre-selection process, is that the SA Liberal Party does not have the time to do the proper vetting it should do,” Boyer said. “In this case, it was clearly not done.
“The people that hold those extreme views are now not just people on the fringes of a major political party like the SA Liberal party.
“They are people who are actually pre-selected candidates, for public office, at a state election.” he added.
On the podcasts Woodhouse is described as a pastor, but his official Liberal party bio makes no mention of this background.
They describe him as a “community minded” person with “extensive international and local experience across hospitality, education, and humanitarian work”, who “has worked directly with homeless communities and supported development efforts in war-torn nations.” Media outlets have since confirmed Woodhouse is a party employee.
Charlie Hamra, the President of the South Australian chapter of Pride in Law, Australia’s national LGBTIQA+ law association, said the comments showed that there were huge gaps in South Australian law.
Hamra noted that Woodhouse’s comments came hot on the heels of One Nation’s South Australian leader Cory Bernardi repeating his belief that same-sex marriage could lead to acceptance of polyamorous unions and bestiality. Bernardi was a Liberal member when he first made the claim in federal parliament almost 14 years ago.
“Carston Woodhouse denies the reality of same-sex marriage and Cory Bernardi regurgitates a link to bestiality. But these are only the most prominent recent examples of a continuous torrent of abuse faced by the LGBTIQA+ community every day.” Hamra said.
“LGBTIQA+ South Australians have no legal protection from hate speech. This is out of step with anti-vilification laws in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory. Neither Labor nor the Liberal Party in South Australia has committed to anti-vilification laws.”
Hamra called on candidates across the political realm to voice their support for urgent law reform.
“Pride in Law calls upon all candidates to commit to legislate to ban the inciting of hate, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or group on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, intersex status, HIV/AIDS status, disability or religion.” he said.
South Australians will go to the polls on 21st March.
Do you need some support?
If you are struggling with anxiety or depression, support and counselling are available from:
QLife: 1800 184 527 / qlife.org.au
QLife are a counselling and referral service for LGBTQIA+ people.
DISCHARGED: info@discharged.asn.au / discharged.asn.au
Discharged is a trans-led support service with peer support groups for trans and gender diverse folks.
Lifeline: 13 11 14 / lifeline.org.au
Beyondblue: 1300 22 4636 / www.beyondblue.org.au
