Police were called to the home of a Greens candidate in Tasmania on Saturday night after a group of drunken men tore down his election signs and allegedly threatened his teenage daughter.
The Greens candidate for Braddon, Scott Jordan, told Guardian Australia that his 15-year-old daughter was alone in their Burnie home when a man knocked on the door and asked to speak to him, about 8.30pm. He said his daughter told the men he was not home but they did not leave.
“It became obvious to her that there were half a dozen men who had clearly been drinking at the end of the driveway,” Jordan said. “They tore down the election sign but more concerning was that for five minutes they essentially intimidated a 15-year-old girl who is not on any ballot paper.”
Jordan said he called police after receiving a panicked phone call from his daughter, who was hiding in the house.
“She was clever enough to move away from any doors or windows – she actually locked herself in the hallway, terrified, for the duration,” he said. “But a 15-year-old girl shouldn’t have to be on the ball enough to know how to protect herself in that situation.”
The men left before Jordan or the police arrived.
Acting sergeant Michael Bobrowski said four police officers attended the house about 8.45pm and that the investigation was ongoing.
Jordan said his home and family had been attacked before but the alleged murder of British MP Jo Cox made him more concerned for their safety.
“The events of a couple of days ago in Britain make it really clear that you can’t just ignore these things, they have to be called out, because if you don’t call out the small stuff you can’t be surprised if it gets to the big stuff,” he said.
“At the end of the day it’s a group of young men who have been drinking and thought this was an appropriate way to express their views.
“There are seven people on the ballot paper [for Braddon]. You can vote for any of the other six, you can make an appointment to come and meet with me … you can do any number of things and I will defend your right to do them but you can’t come to my house and intimidate a 15-year-old girl.”
Jordan is a well-known anti-forestry campaigner in north-west Tasmania and has run for the Greens three times before, most recently in the 2010 federal election. He also runs the environment group Save the Tarkine, which has frustrated proposed mining development in the jobs-poor state by challenging their environmental approvals in the federal court.
“I assume that’s what the noise was about last night,” he said. “It’s usually about that.”
Jordan said his family had been harassed and threatened repeatedly over the years but he regarded Saturday night’s incident as an “escalation”.
In 2013, police were asked to investigate threats to kill Jordan’s children “before they grow up to be greenies”, which were posted under a stolen family photo posted on social media.
Police at the time said the threats were a “grey area”.
