A Victorian Liberal Party candidate has been recorded telling voters First Nations land rights are “absolute bollocks” because “we won this land fair and square”, that nuclear energy waste should be dumped in Alice Springs and questioning why abortion wasn’t considered murder.
Timothy Dragan, the Liberal candidate for Narre Warren North, made the deeply cooked comments outside an early voting centre on Tuesday. The recording was leaked to The Age, which published parts of the audio.
“There is no such thing as traditional Australians … because Australia is a post-colonial concept,” he said.
“We won this land fair and square. It’s like telling Britain to give the land back to the Vikings, and Vikings back to the Romans. And same with Romania … to tell Romania to give Transylvania back to the Hungarians.
“Like, come on man, it’s bollocks. It’s absolute bollocks.”
Dragan also denied the existence of First Nations institutions and sovereignty. According to The Age, the 26-year-old recruitment consultant said he was Indigenous because he was born in Australia.
“Everything that you find now, all these institutions, even this government thing [First Nations people] got, it’s European – it’s not bloody Aboriginal,” he said.
“If we’re going to go by what’s Aboriginal, we might as well abolish everything, get our camping chairs and live in the desert.”
In the leaked audio, Dragan questioned why abortion wasn’t considered murder.
“My argument is, I’m very for women’s rights and health, but I actually believe that two cells combined are actually a human,” he said.
“And so if murder is wrong at an adult’s stage, where do we stop with the concept of murdering a human? And the thing is, for example, a baby is not a developed human. So where is the consistency in the argument?
“Why is the passage through the vagina the reason why you can or can’t murder a human? What makes a vagina’s trajectory so special? Does it give it a magical dignity or something like that, you know?”
Dragan also revealed he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Coalition’s goal to reduce emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. He said the party should focus on nuclear energy and that the radioactive waste should be dumped in Alice Springs.
“If I win, I’m crossing the floor [on emissions reduction targets],” he said.
“I don’t care. I’ll vote against it. This area doesn’t care about climate change.”
Timothy Dragan’s foul remarks aren’t the only controversy plaguing the Victorian Liberal Party. On Saturday, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy announced upper house candidate Renee Heath was being dumped from the party room due to her links to a conservative church which, according to an investigation by The Age, is opposed to gay, trans and reproductive rights.
