katter urged to dump candidate over gay commen

Federal independent MP Bob Katter is being urged to dump an election candidate who likened homosexuality to paedophilia.

Tess Corbett has been preselected for Katter's Australia Party (KAP) in the south-west Victorian seat of Wannon.

Speaking to a local newspaper about Labor's anti-discrimination bill, she said people "should be able to discriminate" in some cases.

"I don't want gays, lesbians or paedophiles to be working in my kindergarten. If you don't like it, go to another kindergarten," she told the Hamilton Spectator.

When asked by the paper whether she considered homosexuals to be in the same category as paedophiles, Ms Corbett replied: "Yes."

"Paedophiles will be next in line to be recognised in the same way as gays and lesbians and get rights," she added.

The Liberal Member for Wannon, Dan Tehan, says Mr Katter should disendorse Ms Corbett.

"I think that Bob Katter definitely needs to seriously consider that," he said.

"The comments deserve to be condemned. I think they're a real test for Bob Katter.

"If he stands by these comments by an endorsed candidate of his party, he deserves outright condemnation as well."

Greens Leader Christine Milne says KAP is fostering discrimination.

"Demeaning and abusing and undermining people who are gay, that is completely unacceptable," she said.

"For a long time people have thought of Bob Katter as some kind of joke, the man with the hat. Well, it's no joke."

Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan also disproves of the comments.

"I don't think anybody can condone those sorts of comments, wherever they come from, and I think the last time I heard Bob Katter on the subject he said the same," Mr Swan said.

'Not afraid to say it'

Bernard Gaynor, a Queensland Senate nominee for KAP and the party's former national general secretary, defended Ms Corbett's comments : "I wouldn't let a gay person teach my children and I am not afraid to say it."

KAP has released a statement saying the party "will not be used by people to air and promote their own personal preoccupations".

The party's national director Aidan McLindon says the controversy surrounding Ms Corbett's comments is "a storm in a teacup".

He says the party's executive will look into the comments, but he believes Ms Corbett has been misquoted.

"I'm not defending what she has or hasn't said, but I haven't seen anywhere her comparing gays and lesbians to paedophiles," he said.

"I certainly don't wish to enter that debate, but I certainly haven't seen it anywhere from her quotes that she's compared them.

"I think what she did say, and this is not defending anything she did or didn't say, but what she did say is that if we start giving minority groups such as gays and lesbians those rights, that would be the next step."

Mr McLindon says he expects the controversy to go away by tomorrow.

"Tomorrow you'll find that an MP from the Labor Party will tweet something to the Liberal party and vice-versa," he said.

"It'll be a whole new controversy tomorrow.

"You can only do so much from a national director's point of view. That'll be something that we'll discuss in terms of how candidates conduct themselves, in terms of what the party stands for."

Yesterday Mr Katter told Fairfax Media Ms Corbett had made a "stupid statement" that detracts from the hard issues affecting farmers.

"If someone has made some statement like that, I'm bloody sure the party will be making arrangements," he said.

"The party is not interested in that, it never has been, never will be."
The ABC has sought a response from Ms Corbett.

Bob Katter MP, Leader of Katters' Australia Party, says the comments by Tess Corbett were "stupid".

Source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/newshome/15938412/katter-urged-to-dump-candidate-over-gay-comments/