Marion Scrymgour calls out racist comment at Katherine pre-polling booth

Australia Broadcast Center

07-05-2025

The Member for Lingiari has filed a complaint after a racist incident at a Katherine pre-polling booth.
Labor's Marion Scrymgour said a voter approached her at the voting site and spoke to her about
"To have a male, a man point his finger to my chest and say … a black boy had killed a man in Nightcliff, 'You're black, so what are you going to do about it?'," she said.
"I wasn't going to put up with the bullying and the intimidation and the racism … there's no room for this in the Northern Territory, we've got greater issues that we've got to deal with."
Labor's Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour.
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ABC News: Michael Franchi
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An Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) spokesperson said it had received Ms Scrymgour's complaint and that staff had reminded all campaigners they needed to be respectful, otherwise the police would be called.
"As a reminder, the AEC is not the police and we have no ability to regulate behaviour that occurs outside of a polling place,"
the spokesperson said.
Claim of brethren in Katherine
Ms Scrymgour has also alleged "aggressive and intimidating" behaviour from members of a conservative Christian sect in a separate incident at the Katherine early voting centre.
Ms Scrymgour said she had a "big barney" with members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, who she said were flown into the outback Northern Territory town before the federal election.
"They were aggressive and intimidating … we had women who were terrified to go to the booth in Katherine," she said.
Ms Scrymgour said the Brethren were campaigning for the CLP and were "aided by the Member for Katherine" Jo Hersey — a claim which Ms Hersey "strongly refutes".
NT Minister Jo Hersey.
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ABC News: Xavier Martin
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Ms Scrymgour said about 40 of
"The plane would pick them up at night after the booths were closed, and then they would be taken to Dugong Beach Resort on Groote Eyelandt," she said.
Ms Scrymgour said she had put in a complaint to the AEC, but a spokesperson said it had not been received.
"The AEC has not received a complaint about people being flown into communities," they said.
"AEC staff have not, to our knowledge, documented any poor behaviour at any of the abovementioned polling places.
"The AEC does not have authority over incidents that occurred outside of the 6-metre exclusion zone in front of the polling places, or outside of the polling place itself, other than to remind campaigners to behave respectfully."
The AEC says it has no authority to regulate behaviour that occurs outside a polling place.
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Supplied: AEC
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A spokesperson from the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church said they could not comment on "how many of our parishioners were volunteering, where, when or for whom, nor on how they travelled there, because we don't know, didn't organise it and certainly didn't pay for it".
"We don't support any political parties, we don't tell our members to volunteer or not for political candidates," the spokesperson said.
Photo shows
A composite image of two people with blurred faces wearing blue Liberal Party t-shirts.
Members of a secretive Christian sect are being given instructions on how to lie about their beliefs against voting in elections, in an apparent coordinated effort to campaign for the Liberal and National parties.
"Our church is aware that many of our parishioners chose to volunteer for some candidates from various political parties at the last election, and that this volunteerism increased after their involvement started being criticised.
"Over the course of the past week in particular, we saw parishioners being frequently photographed by media, called 'Exclusive Brethren' by others on polling booths, and taunted not only by keyboard warriors but even some candidates and sitting MPs.
"As a general point, the church hopes its parishioners are respectful to everyone in the community at all times, and equally hopes that the same respect is offered to them at all times."