Latest news with #BenjaminBritton
The Guardian
08-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
New Liberal candidate for Whitlam claimed ‘Marxist brainwashing' happening at Australian schools
The new Liberal candidate for the seat of Whitlam once claimed school students were being 'brainwashed' by Marxist and woke ideologies – despite replacing another candidate dumped by the party for his controversial views. The party's New South Wales branch administrative committee confirmed on Sunday Benjamin Britton had been disendorsed after Guardian Australia revealed a string of controversial views on fringe podcasts last year, including that women should be banned from frontline roles in the military and that the education system was 'indoctrinating' young Australians about Marxist ideologies. A Liberal party spokesperson said Britton was dumped for 'views expressed which were not previously disclosed and are inconsistent with the party's position', with Nathaniel Smith, a former MP for the NSW seat of Wollondilly, confirmed as his replacement. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Smith, a member of the party's religious conservative faction, held Wollondilly between 2019 and 2023 under the NSW Liberal government before he was ousted by an independent challenger. Smith's maiden speech outlined his views on 'political correctness' and 'Marxist brainwashing' of school students. 'Political correctness in this country has gone too far,' Smith said in May 2019. 'We saw a war on the coal industry just to appeal to the latte-sipping lefties who live in inner-city seats, with no regard for regional areas such as my electorate. 'I believe childhood is a period of innocence. I want to see schools teach core skills, not agendas. I want my children to learn about history, geography, mathematics, Western civilisation, science and the arts; not Safe Schools, gender fluidity and other forms of Marxist brainwashing.' Smith said Australians needed to 'recognise', 'embrace' and maintain Judeo-Christian history in school curriculums. The then-southern highlands MP visited a Melbourne rally against abortion in 2019, hosted by Bernie Finn, amid fierce debate over a bill to decriminalise abortion in NSW. At an August 2019 anti-abortion rally, Smith said abortion should not be decriminalised. 'This is not an issue like a hip replacement, a nose job, a fake tan – this is a human being,' he said at the time. 'This will not protect women, this should not be going into the health care act, it should remain in the crimes act.' Smith's interests include preserving Australia's reliance on gas. Asic records show Smith was appointed director of a pro-gas interests group, co-directed by the chief executive of a Beetaloo Basin gas company, just a month before he was announced as the Liberal's last-minute replacement in Whitlam. The Liberal party were approached for comment. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Smith, who is also the chief executive of Master Plumbers NSW, joined Australians for Natural Gas as one of its three directors in March, Asic records show. The group describes itself as a 'not-for-profit organisation representing the interests of Aussie households, industries, and producers' and supports the 'expanded production and continued use of Australia's abundant reserves of natural gas'. Candidates are not precluded from holding directorships. The group also lists the chief executive for Tamboran Resources, Joel Riddle, as one of its directors. The US company Tamboran Resources signed a nine-year gas sales agreement with the former Northern Territory Labor government in 2024. The deal was announced close to a year after the NT government said production could commence in the Beetaloo basin, despite science and energy agencies warning there can be no more exploitation of new oil, gas and coalfields if the world is to limit global heating to 1.5C. In a social media post in December last year, Smith shared a pro-nuclear post, writing 'it's coming. Get ready for it' using hashtags, 'don't question the science' and 'until then, gas and coal are king'. Lyndal Maloney, a former adviser for conservative political group, CPAC, is also listed as a director for Australians for Natural Gas.
The Guardian
03-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Liberal candidate says women should not serve in ADF combat roles amid range of controversial views
The Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam expressed a string of controversial views on fringe podcasts before his preselection, including the claim that women should not serve in combat positions with the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Benjamin Britton, who has been praised by Peter Dutton as an 'outstanding candidate', ran unsuccessfully for the United Australia Party at the 2022 federal election. He has since claimed 'diversity and equity quotas, Marxist ideology and woke ideologies' have weakened the country's defences, singling out a 2013 change allowing women to be recruited into frontline combat positions. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Among Britton's other claims expressed on the podcasts are: Exposure to pornography leads to gender dysphoria and 'transgender desires'; Labor intentionally keeps some electorates poor to have a better chance of winning them; Australia should 'look at the Isle of Man' for lessons on introducing a flat tax rate to attract billionaires; The education system has 'brainwashed' young Australians with Marxist ideology. Interviewed on a podcast hosted by the right-wing figure Joel Jammal last July, Britton said he had served with 'tremendous' women in the ADF but criticised the recruitment of women for combat roles. 'Basically, long story short, if we're to fix our defence force, unfortunately, they're going to need to remove females from combat corps,' Britton said. 'Their hips are being destroyed because they can't cope with the carrying of the heavy loads and the heavy impacts that's required from doing combat-related jobs,' he said. 'I knew some of the toughest men I've ever met in my life, absolute nails. War left them a shaking mess. Drug addicted. Can't go outside the house because they have panic attacks … If war can do that to them and destroy them, why would you want to send your beautiful women? Your females – the ones that are the backbone of your society. Your society only exists because of women … Why would you want to sacrifice them in war, on the altar?' The Liberal party's hope for Whitlam, held by the retiring minister Stephen Jones on an 8.3% margin, said women sent to the frontline in Ukraine had been killed because they 'didn't stand a chance'. 'You're seeing all the bodies in there – braided hair didn't stand a chance. Should never have been there in the first place. Can barely hold up a rifle, and they put them on the frontline to just be killed, and … you're throwing away one of the most precious things that you have in your society,' Britton said. About 20% of military personnel are women, and the ADF has made efforts to increase recruitment in recent years. Women were allowed to take combat roles for the first time in 2013, and from 2014, they could apply for special forces roles contingent on passing a physical and fitness examination. There is no evidence that standards have been lowered to increase the number of women taking on frontline roles. On the podcasts, he also linked adolescent exposure to pornography as 'pushing' young men into 'transgender desires'. 'This is why we see extreme, unrealistic sexual practices and desires in the community [that] have risen massively over the last, say, 40 years, as a direct result of pornography,' he said. Britton covered many other areas on the fringe podcasts, including conspiracies, such as one claiming Labor intentionally kept safe seats poor, his support for Australia becoming a tax haven like the Isle of Man and his opposition to the 'Big Brother' social media age verification system supported by both major parties. In an August podcast, Britton claimed the education system 'brainwashed' and 'indoctrinated' young Australians with Marxist ideologies. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'It's a disaster, but it shows how much of a failure our education system has been because no longer do they take children and teach them how to think, they teach them what to think, and they teach them the wrong thing,' he said. Britton also suggested Labor and the Greens were using Marxist ideology to trick voters into supporting them before abandoning them in power, and said their supporters would not be capable of 'running Gulags'. Britton was preselected to run for the safe Labor seat, which takes in parts of the south coast and southern highlands, in December 2024, with the opposition pitching him as a champion for small business and housing ownership. In his endorsement announcement, Britton was described as working as a chief information security officer in the defence industry sector. He works at Britton Maritime Systems, based in Sydney's Sutherland Shire. It is owned by Stephen Britton, and features a personal endorsement on its website from the former prime minister Scott Morrison. In January, Dutton posted a picture of himself and Britton on Instagram during a visit to Moss Vale. 'Ben's working hard in his community and standing up for local families and small businesses, drawing on his dedication as a veteran and his leadership in the defence industry,' the opposition leader wrote in the post. 'This area has been ignored by a local Labor member who is asleep at the wheel, but with our positive plans and an outstanding candidate like Ben, we'll get this region and our country back on track.' The veteran will face two female candidates in the contest for Whitlam: Labor's Carol Berry and the National's Katrina Hodgkinson. Neither Britton nor the Coalition's campaign headquarters responded to a request for comment.
