Refugee and fracking activists a ‘bunch of cockroaches’, says Liberal pursuing Senate vacancy – The Sydney Morning Herald

One of the candidates vying to be the next West Australian senator for the LiberalParty has described supporters of refugee-friendly policies as "a bunch of cockroaches" swarming all over his former electorate.

Michael Sutherland, the former Speaker in the WA parliamentwho lost his inner city seat in March, made the comments at a Liberal Party event in Sydney last month.

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He is one of the five menrevealedto bevying in this weekend's pre-selection for the Senate vacancy created by the retirement of Liberal Chris Back. Born in South Africa,Mr Sutherland has refused to provide proof he has relinquished his dual-citizenship,despite two Greens senators resigning in the past weekafter it emerged they were citizens of other countries.

Speaking at a panel discussion on how the Liberals can combat anti-fracking campaign groups, Mr Sutherland said such activists had overrun his former electorate of Mount Lawley.

"My seat was an inner city seat and these people were crawling all over the seat, so, it's a big problem," he said.

He then turned his attention to the organisation representing Western Australia's 139councils (WALGA)for promoting refugee-friendly spaces.

"Youknow WALGA as well gets involved in things like refugee-friendly zones and if we don't all stand together and fight this bunch of cockroaches, we're going to have a real problem."

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Liberals attending can be heard laughing atMr Sutherland's comments in audioobtained by Fairfax Media.

The Refugee Council said in 2015 there were146 Welcome Zones created by local governments across the country. The Refugee Welcome Zones is a voluntary scheme created in 2002 to encourage councils to help refugees, people who have fled persecution in their home countries, settle in their new homes.

Under the scheme, the Refugee Council suggests local governments organise street fairs, hold picnics andfund community projects that help resettle refugees and develop English tutoring programs through local libraries.

Asked to clarify his comments, Mr Sutherland cited Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

"The 'cockroaches'are the greenies and activists I referred to -they have infiltrated WALGA local councils and wherever they can.

"WALGA and the local councils who promote this stuff are better describedby the term used by Lenin, 'Useful idiots,'" he said.

"I did not know of the Refugee Zone business until my wife, who is a councillor, came home and told me about it.I nearly fell off my chair as I did when I learned that WALGA is encouraging councils to disinvest from financial institutions who support fossil fuel industries.

"I am waiting for my local council to do away with all fossil fuel vehicles, perhaps we will have 'sheep in the meadows'to mow the park lawns.

"People must not squeal when there is mass unemployment which is coming with this nonsense coupled with mechanisation."

He also released to Fairfax Media his letter to State Council formally seeking their support ahead of this Saturday's preselection.

In it he vowed to continue to fight "left-wing groups who wish to shut down or curtail economic development."

And he said he would champion "maintaining strong borders and combating the existential threatsfaced by Australia caused by instability in the Pacific Region and by Islamic terrorism."

Former staffer to the influential right-wing powerbrokercabinet minister MathiasCormann, SladeBrockman, is considered most likely to win the pre-selection contest.

Dual Nationality

Mr Sutherland was born in South Africa in 1954. His father served for the South African army in the Second World War in Egypt, where he met Mr Sutherland's mother - a Lebanese Christian who spoke Arabic, French, Italian and Greek. He moved to Australia in 1987, and held onto to his dual nationality while in state parliament, as there is no rule against dual citizens in the WA legislature.

Earlier this month he assured Fairfax Media that he is no longer a dual-citizen.

Since then, the shock revelations of dual citizenship that forced two Greens senators to resign haveprompted calls for all MPs born overseas to provide proof, and not just assurances, that they have relinquished their second citizenships.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott, who has faced a relentless online campaign claiming he still holds a British passport, was the first to provide evidence that he gave up his dual-nationality before standing for Parliament.

WA Liberal Ian Goodenough has also provided documentation. But Mr Sutherland said the people who "needed to know" would be shown the evidence and not the public.

"I am a solicitor.I have attended to the necessary -the people who need to know are aware of my actions," he said.

"To reiterate, I have relinquished my South African citizenship," he said.

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Refugee and fracking activists a 'bunch of cockroaches', says Liberal pursuing Senate vacancy - The Sydney Morning Herald