Katherine Deves has been forced to justify her decision to run for the NSW senate seat left vacant by the late-Jim Molan.
The controversial former Liberal candidate for Warringah was on the end of a grilling by Sky News Australia’s Sharri Markson, following Ms Deves’s decision to nominate for the position.
The seat will be filled by a casual vacancy once the NSW Liberal Party chooses a replacement for Senator Molan, who passed away in January, aged 72.
The tone of the interview was set early by Markson – a Walkley-winning journalist and host of the self-titled show Sharri.
“Now Katherine, you have offended Transgender children and their parents, you’ve had to apologise to the Jewish community, you even had to visit the Sydney holocaust museum after making nazi comparisons,” Markson asked.
“What on earth makes you think you would be the best person to replace the highly respected and much-loved senator Jim Molan?”
Noting the “very strong legacy” left by Senator Molan, Ms Deves attempted to draw comparisons between herself and the former Major General she hopes to replace.
“He comes from the conservative side of politics, as do I. He had a very distinguished career in the military, I have read his book,” Ms Deves said.
“With respect to what I think I could bring to the table, well I am a strong conservative woman… I can demonstrate, to the people that I would represent that I would go in there fighting.
“And I do align myself with some of the values that Jim had, particularly around issues of, you know, defending our freedom of speech, defending our great nation, standing up for aspirational Australian families, and standing up for common sense.”
Ms Deves also said she was “very grateful to the Jewish community” for inviting her to visit the Sydney Holocaust Museum which she described as “an incredibly moving and memorable experience.”
Markson’s immediate follow-up was to point out that the visit to the holocaust museum only occurred because a journalist had discovered Ms Deves “tweeted something so offensive that [she] had to delete.”
The Sky News host also argued there was a difference between believing in free speech or being a conservative, and “being so highly offensive that you have to go visit the Jewish holocaust Museum.”
“It’s something Jim Molan would never have had to do. Yes he believed in free speech but he didn’t offend the community so deeply, as you have done,” Markson said.
“Sharri, in my defence, I was discussing the rise of fascist regimes, and I was, in an effort to understand what we are seeing with these deeply authoritarian and socialist ideologies that are infiltrating our societies,” Ms Deves responded, before acknowledging she had made a mistake.
“Now look, I agree with you that it was highly inappropriate to invoke the Third Reich as an analogy and I am very grateful to the Jewish community for giving me the opportunity to understand that that was wrong.
“I’m not excusing it, but I have learned that it was absolutely the wrong thing to do and I showed contrition and I apologized.”
Ms Deves said she had since “had a number of in-depth conversations” with the head of the Australian Jewish Association about the issue.
“I won’t be invoking the Third Reich again,” she said.
“And now that I see other people, other people in the public eye, invoke that, I feel offended on behalf of the Jewish community, particularly as Dr David Adler has shared with me, like the rise of anti-semitism.”
A clearly unimpressed Markson then moved on to Ms Deves’s past comments about Trans issues before questioning her ability to represent the entire NSW population.
“Even if you never say anything deeply offensive again, you still do have divisive views when it comes to transgenders, you’ve said that half of transgenders are sex offenders, something else you had to apologise the midst of the election campaign,” Markson said.
“Shouldn’t there be someone who represents NSW in a more wholehearted way?”
A clearly rattled Ms Deves said the statistic she had used related to the UK prison population and had been “woefully represented in the media” and her campaign for Warringah had been supported by “thousands of people” from “all across NSW, Australia – indeed the world”.
The controversial candidate stood by her stance on biological sex, saying she didn’t think there was anything “divisive” about saying that “men cannot be women, and that in certain circumstances biological sex matters and that women and girls have the right to privacy, dignity, and safety in certain contexts”.
Markson agreed there was “nothing offensive” about the position, the problem was the way Ms Deves went about delivering her message.
“A lot of people say that without offending people but you went that step further. A lot of people stand up for women’s rights without going that step further and offending people,” Markson said.
In a Twitter post following the appearance, Ms Deves thanked Markson for the opportunity to appear on her program.”I welcome being challenged on my views… I will always stand for women & girls, families, the nation I love & common sense,” she said.
Source: skynews.com.au
