A Liberal candidate has apologised over a bizarre false statement in which she appeared to claim credit for the work of a woman with a similar name who is a conservationist on Kangaroo Island.
Allison Bluck is running for the seat of Mayo in the Adelaide Hills at the upcoming federal election, and is described by the Liberal Party as a "financial professional" with experience in the defence, energy and agriculture sectors.
Alison Buck, on the other hand, is the manager of a wilderness trail on Kangaroo Island for South Australia's Environment Department.
But in a campaign letter from Ms Bluck to Mayo voters — a letter written in the first person, with Ms Bluck's signature — she appears to conflate herself with the latter.
"As the manager of the Kangaroo Island Nature Trail, I am passionate about the environment," Ms Bluck's letter stated.
In a subsequent post on Facebook, Ms Bluck acknowledged the error and apologised for it.
"I'm sorry about the error and I wanted to clear up any confusion straight away."
A Liberal Party spokesperson further clarified that the "letter was an early draft that was incorrectly sent to the printer by central headquarters".
"As soon as the error became evident, Allison corrected the record publically (sic) and has apologised to the individual concerned," the spokesperson said.
In a statement to The Advertiser, Ms Buck — who is the manager of the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail — indicated that the reference to a "Kangaroo Island Nature Trail" in Ms Bluck's letter was itself a mistake.
"I don't know anything about a 'Kangaroo Island nature trail', unless someone is doing something on private property," Ms Buck said.
In a further statement, Ms Buck said Ms Bluck had apologised to her directly.
"As a public servant, I have no further comment on this issue."
Ms Bluck's letter also mentioned the non-existent "Hahndorf Road" — instead of Mount Barker Road — as the site of an upgrade.
The case of mistaken identity was ridiculed by respondents to Ms Bluck's apology, with one suggesting "that someone was employed to draft and send that out, used Google to do so and failed miserably".
"Excuse me, but how can you 'mix up a job description' involving the KI Island Nature Walks," said another.
"It is totally disrespectful to us Islanders so impacted by the fires, and especially Alison who is working so hard to obtain visitation back to the Island/western end."
