Greens under siege over candidate's 'hateful' social media posts

Both Labor and the Liberals have tried to take advantage of another social media post storm hitting the ACT Greens, with Chief Minister Andrew Barr calling for a full apology and Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee attempting to tar Labor because they were in coalition with the Greens last term.

The Australian newspaper revealed that Greens candidate in Kurrajong James Cruz posted a decade ago that he wanted to “f—ing kill politicians” and “send them to The Hague and hang them in the street” over their treatment of asylum seekers.

It reported that Mr Cruz also posted that he did not “give a shit” about Israeli forces dying “when they couldn’t care less about indiscriminately slaughtering civilians and actively cheer as they die”.

He posted them on his personal Facebook account in 2014 and 2015.

Mr Cruz has since posted a statement regretting the posts and disavowing violence.

“The suggestion of the use of violence was inappropriate. The feelings were expressed in the heat of deep pain at the deaths of civilians and the treatment of the refugee community,” he said.

“I regret using those words and would not use them again. I want to reiterate that I disavow all violence and I wholeheartedly support the Greens’ core values of peace and non-violence.”

A party member since 2011, Mr Cruz has previously run as an ACT Greens Senate candidate and works as a librarian at the National Library of Australia.

The controversy follows a similar situation where a Greens candidate in Murrumbidgee, Harini Rangaragan, was in the spotlight over a post under another name comparing Jesus Christ with terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. She explained that it was a creative writing exercise, not a statement of belief.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the Greens should consider disendorsing Mr Cruz.

He said the posts needed to be taken down and a full apology given.

“Hateful and risky statements such as these could have terrible consequences,” Mr Barr said.

“All it will take is one person to misinterpret them and we could have a tragedy on our hands.

“We are seeing in other Australian cities, some quite significant political violence occurring.

“It certainly demonstrates that a lot of people who run for public office have quite extreme views that they struggle with and that the vehicle of social media platforms seemingly provides ample opportunity for people to express quite extreme views.”

Pitching Labor as the sensible centre, Mr Barr said there had been repeat episodes from a couple of Greens candidates and a number of Liberal candidates.

“Labor remains absolutely committed to implementing the agenda that we’re taking forward in this election,” he said.

“We can do so in a progressive and practical way without the extremism that we see in this campaign.”

Ms Lee said Mr Cruz’s posts would ring alarm bells for most Canberrans and that Labor and the Greens had been in coalition for years and could not be separated.

She said that if Mr Barr were returned as Chief Minister, he would have to deal with the Greens.

Ms Lee said Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury he needed to step up and call out these comments that most Canberrans would find abhorrent.

Mr Rattenbury said some posts had fallen through the cracks and the party would have to review its vetting process.

But he stood by his candidate and his statement disavowing violence.

He said Mr Cruz’s clarification was very clear that there was no place for violence.

Mr Rattenbury rejected claims that the Greens’ credibility as a governing party had been damaged.

“The Greens have demonstrated significant capability to take on responsibility in government in my role as Attorney-General, a senior minister in the government,” he said.

“My other two colleagues have come in and been ministers this term. We’ve demonstrated a high level of capability.

“The people who are our leading candidates for this election are, are people who’ve got a proven track record.

“I think we’ve demonstrated a significant ability to be policy drivers and change makers.”

The Greens said in its initial response to The Australian that the social media posts all related to issues of concern to the Greens: violence against civilians, corporate accountability, drug harm reduction and people seeking asylum.

“The tone of the posts is impassioned and will be confronting to some, as are the issues themselves. Mr Cruz disavows violence and made those comments over deep pain at deaths of innocent civilians and the treatment of the refugee community, of which he has family and friends.”