Australian Labor Party ejects anti-gay ‘extremist’, 19
The Australian Labor Party has ejected a 19-year-old Queensland candidate from the party, dubbing him an ‘extremist’ for comments he made online about gays.
Peter Watson had posted views online in 2007 about gays being “wiped out” and suggesting a link between homosexuality and paedophilia.
He was asked to resign and has now been expelled from the party.
Watson’s father has quit the party today in protest at the treatment of his son.
Queensland premier Anna Bligh said she believed 19-year-old Watson was planning to embarrass the party, news.com.au reports.
She said: “The views of this man have no place in the ALP. Frankly they are despicable and they have no place in the Australian community.
“That’s why when these views became known to the party. He was asked to resign and this morning he was expelled.
“I am certainly very, very angry about this man’s endorsement in the first place.
“From what I understand this man was very determined to get into the ALP. Hiding his views, then making them known to embarrass the party.”
There was initially confusion over whether Watson had made all of the anti-gay comments. In an ALP media release, he was said to have denied the allegations but did agree to resign as a regional candidate.
However during a later radio interview, Watson said: “I said that homosexuality and pedophilia were linked because there has been some research done and it’s been published by the Catholic Church that suggests that 30 per cent of male pedophiles are homosexuals.
“I made the comments so I do agree.”
He had reportedly written online that: “Homosexuality and pedophilia go hand in hand with each other.
“To deal with one you must deal with the other in order to wipe them from society.”
He also wrote that he had pretended to be a neo-Nazi to “get information out of the enemy”.
“I gave the information about the stupid neo-nazis to my comrades and they dealt with the neo-nazis.
“Now most of those neo-nazis are in jail or bashed thanks to my lie.”
His father, Dudley Watson, said when his son had made the comments years previously.
He said: “He was a 14 or 15-year-old, his mother had just passed away who he was close to, but I can assure you that he was quoting out a Catholic Church survey, and what he did agree to was that it [homosexuality] did degrade society.”
Queensland’s state election is to be held on 24 March.
