The federal election campaign has taken an ugly turn after Jewish MP Julian Leeser’s campaign posters were defaced by Nazi symbols.
Vandals drew swastikas and a Hitler moustache on images of the Liberal member for Berowra in Sydney’s north.
Mr Leeser said one of his supporters had spotted the defaced posters near Normanhurst train station on Thursday afternoon — the eve of Passover, one of the Jewish religion’s most important festivals.
He believes the anti-Semitic attack was “designed to send a message” to him as a prominent member of the Jewish community.
“Two had swastikas on them with Adolf Hitler moustaches and another two had ETU (Electrical Trades Union) stickers on them,” Mr Leeser told The Saturday Telegraph. “I’m sad and upset about it. This is not the Berowra I know. I think it’s quite un-Australian, it’s disgraceful and it’s particularly distressing on the eve of Passover.”
An Electrical Trades Union spokesman said it “did not authorise or condone the actions of the individual who placed a union sticker on a political poster”.
“We are confident that action was unrelated to the separate incident involving anti-Semitic graffiti being drawn on another poster,” the spokesman said. “Our union has no tolerance for racism, whether in politics, the workplace, or the broader community.”
Read the article by Edward Boyd in The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun.