Clearly this isn’t a great week for the Liberals, because after Scott Morrison was absolutely bodied at the G20 summit by French president Emmanuel Macron, a more local Liberal candidate has been called out for claiming a stock photo is actually an image of a real, local couple in her electorate.
Jo Bromilow, a Liberal candidate for the Blue Mountains, uploaded a post to Facebook claiming the council doesn’t care about retirees who are “forced” to move out of the local area because they can’t downsize their property.
“It is so disappointing when we hear stories of long-term residents who aren’t able to downsize as they become empty nesters or circumstances change, and therefore need to move off the mountains,” she wrote.
“They are forced to move away from their family and friends, their support services, their favourite stores and the area they love. Why? The current Council doesn’t care about you if you can’t stay in your regular sized property, they aren’t interested in options for your lifestyle. We are.”
Attached to the post is an incredibly stock-ish looking picture of an elderly couple looking very stressed out in their nice aesthetic home, complete with an artfully blurred background and exaggerated facial expressions that we love to see in stock photos.
A Facebook user commented on the post saying: “Is this a local couple? They look so sad”. Bromilow replied saying “yes, [they] are.” Um, no wait a damn minute.
A quick google search procures that exact image on stock image site Alamy, under the label “Senior Couple Going Through Finances Looking Worried”, as revealed by Preston Towers on Twitter. So, Jo, I’m pretty sure this is not, in fact, a Blue Mountains couple worried about leaving their area.
Well, this is deeply embarrassing for the Liberal Party in the Blue Mountains. pic.twitter.com/7TwVx6g7xL
— Preston Towers (@prestontowers) November 1, 2021
The Facebook commenter then replied asking about the couple’s story, to no response, while several others meme’d the shit out of Bromilow for seemingly staging a fake story.
The comments have all been deleted (booooo), but not before a couple of screenshots were posted to Twitter.
The comments are disappearing, but here is a another one pic.twitter.com/qhCFoz7bO7
— Preston Towers (@prestontowers) November 1, 2021
The funniest part of this whole thing though is that Bromilow didn’t just delete all the comments — she specifically left only one on the post, which says “Totally agree Jo, people need more choices, especially in their golden years”. And the post is still up.
If the Liberals bring one thing to politics, it’s the fucking audacity.
