A Greens candidate joked that Adolf Hitler “had fun” in an opinion piece she later videoed herself reading.
Federal party leader Adam Bandt is standing by candidate Mandy Nolan after the video prompted calls from a Jewish group for her resignation.
Ms Nolan, a comedian, made the comment in a video rendition of an opinion piece published in the independent newspaper Byron Shire Echo in which she discusses the frustration of explaining to her teenage daughter the need to balance fun and responsibility.
“Just look at Hitler. He had fun. He did whatever he wanted to do,” she said in the video uploaded to YouTube in August 2011. “Just ask six million Jews how they feel about that now and he still didn’t get his sociopathic fill – you just can’t do it, it’s unethical.”
Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said Ms Nolan’s comments were indefensible and called on Mr Bandt to disendorse her.
“The Holocaust deserves greater respect and should not be debased or degraded in such a way, and for any individual to generate laughter at the expense of those who have suffered enough is obscene,” he said.
“Holocaust survivors who have lost families and loved ones in the concentration camps would not find Ms Nolan’s remarks funny and would be deeply hurt to know that anyone has used the slaughter of millions for cheap giggles.”
Read the article by Remy Varga in The Australian.