Ararat council worker ‘counselled’ by employer after placing ad to find people interested in ‘right-wing’ politics to form an alliance

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A Victorian man has sparked a backlash against a newspaper and the council he works for after placing a $13 ad hoping to meet people interested in “white pride”.

The small ad, placed in the community-owned Pyrenees Advocate, shocked many locals. It said: “WANTED: people interested in white pride and right-wing politic’s [sic] to form an alliance. Beaufort area.” It included a mobile phone number.

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Ararat rural city council’s chief executive, Alex Bawden, said the advertisement did not reflect the council’s views: “Ararat is actually a very tolerant community,” he said.

“It was founded by Chinese gold miners back in the 1800s and it’s very welcoming. We have a significant Muslim community now who are very well regarded and respected in the community.”

Bawden said when the local media alerted him to the fact that the ad was placed by a council worker, the man was counselled by staff.

“It appears he is quite naive and did not quite appreciate what he was doing,” Bawden said.

“We made him aware of the interest that it attracted and he was quite surprised with that. I don’t think he has any connection with any right-wing groups. He said he had been researching his European ancestry and he was interested in meeting other European people.

“From an employee point of view we don’t condone this sort of attitude. We recently joined the Welcoming Cities, an organisation of councils that welcomes refugees and migrants into their communities. We also respect an individual’s right to freedom of speech.”

Bawden said the man had not lost his job because a person’s politics was “not a sackable offence”.

“We have counselled him on what effect it could have on people’s willingness to use council services,” Bawden said.

The editor of the Pyrenees Advocate, John Higgins, told the ABC he didn’t like “the atmospherics of it one little bit” but he didn’t want to censor it either.

“If there had been a call to arms or something like that it wouldn’t have been published but he is just talking about white pride and I thought in [George] Brandis’s words: ‘Everyone has a right to be a bigot,’ even if we don’t like it.”

On the ABC’s Facebook page some expressed their dismay with the editor’s decision: “No obvious racism in the community. Um, excuse Mr editor but racism exists everywhere, whether you can ‘see’ it or not. Not only is the ad offensive, but the misplaced apostrophe just makes my eyes water even more. What a joke.”

“It only takes one nutter to taint the reputation of a great little country town like Beaufort. Disappointing decision by the newspaper to print the add though. Where’s their moral conscience?”