Degrading comments made on facebook about his own community has forced Liberal SA candidate Anthony Antoniadis to apologise this week after the public caught wind of his social media rant.
Antoniadis, who runs a newsagency at Salisbury in northern Adelaide in his Facebook comments criticised the dress sense, hygiene and employment status of some people living in the area.
Some of these comments, as reported on The Guardian were:
“If only the people standing in front of Centrelink at 8am would wake up early enough to get a job … perhaps they wouldn’t be there in the first place!!!!” and “mmmm, yum!!! I love it when I can smell customers from 10 meters away!!!! #5108 #lynx #niveaformen #isle 14 #woolworths”.
SA Labor requested from the state Liberal leader Steven Marshal to act decisively and damp Mr Antoniadis.
SA minister Tom Koutsantonis said that “It is not good enough for a leader to stand by and watch his hand-picked candidate say these things about the people he chooses to represent,” he said.
However, the Liberal Party responded by saying that the issue has been dealt with and the candidate has been counselled.
“He’s certainly been counselled against the comments that he’s made and the embarrassment he’s caused the party,” with his stupid and offensive comments, said Steven Marshal, the leader of the Liberals in South Australia.
Mr Antoniadis who initially declined to comment about his Facebook posts later expressed his remorse.
Sources: ABC, The Guardian