Australian politician sacked for anti-Muslim rant

A Victorian Liberal Party candidate for the federal election has been dumped over an “appalling” anti-Muslim rant.

 

A Victorian Liberal Party candidate for the federal election has been dumped over an “appalling” anti-Muslim rant.

Jeremy Hearn, who was contesting the seat of Isaacs in Melbourne’s southeast, was cut adrift on the morning of May 1.

“There is no place in the party for people with these views,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Herald Sun.

Hearn apologized overnight for saying that Muslims are people of “bad character” who should be denied Australian citizenship.

In comments on a magazine article, he also accused Muslims of wanting sharia law in Australia and called for taxpayers to stop funding Islamic schools.

“Those comments were entirely wrong and I apologise unreservedly for them,” he told AAP on Tuesday night.

The one-line apology was not enough to save Hearn, with Victorian Liberal Party officials moving to cancel his endorsement.

Senior Victorian Liberal MP Alan Tudge lashed his offensive remarks.

“Those views don’t represent the views of the Liberal Party,” the minister told Sky News.

Labor holds the seat of Isaacs, which includes suburbs such as Dandenong South, Chelsea, Braeside, and Mordialloc, by 2.3 percent.