BACKLASH surrounding an election campaign leaflet distributed by Country Labor Candidate Ursula Stephens continued this week with reports the pamphlet appeared as advertising inserts in Boorowa and Yass newspapers.
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This comes despite apologies issued to Guy Milson, James Carr, Ian McLennan and Bill Dobbie from Dr Stephens on February 21, in which Dr Stephens pledged to “stop distributing the pamphlet immediately and return them to be destroyed”.
All four men were pictured in the original leaflet, alongside words “the NSW Nationals are not happy”.
Dr Stephens clarified, however, the recall was to simply remove the photograph of the men from the pamphlet - not to scrap the targeted campaign.
A redesigned version, sans image, was found in the Yass Tribune newspaper late last week.
The original, with the picture of the four men, was still found in Boorowa newspapers on Thursday.
“We inserted it into the Boorowa News and the Yass Tribune and we’re going to insert it into the Crookwell Gazette as well,” Dr Stephens explained.
“Because the Yass Tribune and Crookwell Gazette are distributed out of Canberra we were able to recall the ones with the photos on them. The Boorowa news is distributed out of Dubbo and so we booked it into the Dubbo paper that first week it was released. I thought they had already sent them out before the big kerfuffle. I hadn’t realised it hadn’t gone out until last week.
“We reprinted the pamphlet and I think it’s very clear that it’s a message from me. (We) took the offending photo out but still stand by the content.”
Apology bungle
On Monday Mr Milson told the Post while he accepted the public apology and personal letter he received from Dr Stephens, it was “factually incorrect”.
The letter, signed by Dr Stephens, read: “I am writing to unreservedly apologise for the use of the photograph… When the photograph was taken you all gave your verbal permission for it to go on my Facebook page, so it was saved into my photo stream… “It was certainly not meant to imply that you, or any of the others are members of the National Party. I know absolutely that this is not true. I completely understand why you would be embarrassed and I do sincerely apologise for any embarrassment or awkwardness this has created for you with others.”
Still, Mr Milson believes there is a need for “the truth to come out”.
“The embarrassment was in that it was implied we were supporting Ursula, not that we were portrayed as Nationals’,” he explained.
“The apology is factually incorrect.
Neither Ian (McLennan), James (Carr) or I gave permission for our photos to be used on social media.
“We just want the truth to come out. The whole point is that we went there to discuss the LLS and nothing else. We went to the Labor Candidate because we wanted to highlight the situation with the LLS. I would like to see anywhere here where the original intention of our meeting is indicated.
It’s a gross misrepresentation.”
He and Boorowa farmer Sam McGuiness met with Liberal MP Pru Goward on Monday to discuss the issue.
Mr McGuiness received the leaflet inside a subscription newspaper over the weekend. He described the campaign and apology as “cute”.
“It’s just wrong. There is nothing honourable about it. It’s made intentionally in these colours to deceive people in rural areas. The apology letter is just more deception,” Mr McGuiness said.
“Someone saw this as an opportunity (but) all they have done is completely deceive anyone who trusted them. It’s a small issue but if they’re prepared to bend now, what will they do on the big issues?”