Federal election 2022: Liberal MP calls for review of WA vaccine mandates in interview with anti-vaxxer

Liberal MP Vince Connelly has given an interview to an anti-vaccine activist and United Australia Party supporter where he called for the McGowan Government’s vaccine mandates to be reviewed. The interview with Lyndsay Macgregor Bennett, who was last year charged by WA Police and later fined for harassing school children who were waiting to be vaccinated at a shopping centre, took place at a Cowan pre-poll centre. Labor MP Anne Aly said she was disappointed Mr Connelly, who is her opponent for the marginal seat of Cowan, had engaged with Bennett, who she called a conspiracy theorist. She said the interview had taken place after Mr Connelly had witnessed Bennett behaving aggressively to her. “I was at Balcatta pre-poll to speak to voters. A campaigner for Clive Palmer, who had been handing out UAP how-to-vote cards, began asking me questions while filming on his phone and claiming to be a journalist,” Dr Aly said. “I was there to talk to voters, not anti-vaccine campaigners ... no real journalist would be campaigning for a particular party.” “He spent the next 20 or 30 minutes loudly and aggressively demanding an interview and he had to be asked to stay out of my personal space a number of times.” Some of the interaction was filmed in a livestream and uploaded to Bennett’s “Freedom Media” social media page, attracting comments from anti-vaxxers. In the video, Bennett can be seen asking Dr Aly a series of strange questions about vaccine mandates for healthcare workers and her thoughts on a hypothetical scenario about a teacher at a Muslim school undertaking a gender transition. Bennett encourages his followers to send him questions for Dr Aly and Mr Connelly complaining about MPs ignoring “independent media” and only speaking with “government controlled, sponsored media”. He then introduces himself to Mr Connelly as being from Freedom Media and asks him some of the same questions. Mr Connelly, who refers to Bennett by his first name, said McGowan Government mandates had been “incredibly broad” and he was encouraging those concerned to contact their state Labor MPs. “I reckon it’s time for the State Labor to reconsider where they’re at with mandates and to reassess that ... and I’ve encouraged the State Labor Government to do exactly that,” he said. In the video Bennett admits to handing out how-to-vote cards for Clive Palmer’s UAP. It was posted last week and Bennett has continued to attend the pre-poll and post on social media about Dr Aly since including derogatory comments about her husband. A WA Liberal spokesperson said Mr Connelly was a “polite person” which was why he had chosen to answer Bennett’s questions but he had not been aware of Bennett’s background. The Liberal party did not respond to questions asking Mr Connelly to elaborate on how exactly he thought the WA Government’s vaccine mandates needed to be reviewed, however did provide a comment attacking Anthony Albanese for ignoring media’s questions. “Vince is not afraid to answer questions, unlike Anthony Albanese who ran away from media questions while in Perth this week,” the WA Liberal spokesman said. Mr Connelly is running against Dr Aly in Cowan, WA’s most marginal seat, after his own seat of Stirling was abolished. WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson accused Mr Connelly of “undermining” WA’s vaccine rollout. Her spokeswoman said WA’s vaccine mandates had helped WA achieve a vaccination rate that was the “envy of the nation and the world” and reduced hospitalisation and ICU admissions below what was forecast. The incident comes after the Australian Electoral Commission sent out a message to parties last week warning about bad behaviour at pre-poll booths which they said had already prompted some of their volunteers to resign. “Despite the vast majority of party workers behaving entirely appropriately, we have already seen some poor behaviour displayed at a number of PPVCs around the country,” the AEC message said. “This is disturbing given we have only conducted two days of early voting. Unfortunately, we have already had a number of our temporary staff resign on the basis of poor party behaviour.” The AEC confirmed they were aware of complaints regarding UAP workers at Belmont pre-poll which is in the seat of Swan. “ (We) can confirm that the police have been called a few times at the Belmont pre-poll centre to handle conduct from UAP Party workers in particular. However, these kinds of incidents are not a matter for the AEC. Any concerns about aggressive conduct or abuse should be directed towards the Police,” the spokeswoman said. Police had attended the Belmont pre-poll on Friday, but no charges were laid. WA Labor Secretary Tim Picton said there had been “appalling” behaviour at WA pre-polls from UAP supporters and accused them of “disrupting democracy”. Dr Aly said she had observed more aggressive behaviour this election than in previous polls, saying she was concerned for her volunteers. The WA Liberal party did not respond to questions about pre-poll behaviour. The UAP was contacted for comment.