A Liberal candidate in South Australia’s upcoming state election has been dumped after his “shocking and extreme” views on abortion, same-sex marriage, gender transitioning and feminism were aired by his Labor rival.
The leader of the SA Liberals, Ashton Hurn, on Wednesday stood by Carston Woodhouse, who had been running for the seat of Wright in Adelaide’s north, after his appearances on the evangelical Christian podcast ElijahFire surfaced.
On Thursday, Hurn said Woodhouse “will no longer be the candidate”.
“I stood here yesterday, and I made myself clear that I did not support the comments made by a particular candidate. That remains true today, and that person is no longer a candidate for the Liberal party at this state election,” she told reporters.
“I still maintain very strongly that people are entitled to have their view.”
Hurn refused to say whether Woodhouse had been disendorsed or had resigned and added that he remained under an employment contract with the SA Liberal party.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailBut the Liberals’ SA state director, Alex Hyde, confirmed Woodhouse had been asked to step down.
He said he had met with Woodhouse and “discussed the need for our campaign to remain focused on our policy priorities”.
“As a result of being asked to step down, and in support of our team and campaign remaining focused, Mr Woodhouse has agreed to withdraw his candidacy.
“Mr Woodhouse does not shirk from his deeply held views and wants to see the Liberal party succeed in the election and hold this terrible Labor government to account”, he said in a statement.
He said the electoral commission had been informed of the decision.
In videos of the podcast conversations, aired in a press conference on Wednesday by the incumbent member for Wright, Blair Boyer, Woodhouse describes feminism as “demonic”, says there is “this illusion that you can somehow change your sex” and asks “who knows what demonic realms we’ve opened up to the world … by accepting homosexuality”.
Alex Antic, a Liberal senator for South Australia, defended Woodhouse in federal parliament on Thursday.
“I haven’t read what this guy has said, frankly, because I don’t care about anything that’s written in the media in South Australia, but I’ll say this, if this guy is disendorsed, or if he feels compelled to leave, we might as well shut the doors on this election with one week to go,” he said.
On Thursday afternoon, Boyer, the SA minister for education, training and skills, criticised Hurn and the SA Liberals’ handling of the matter.
“I think this is completely uncharted waters for South Australian state elections, perhaps not just South Australia … The events of the last 24 hours are quite astonishing,” he told reporters.
“These are unprecedented circumstances. Ashton Hurn should have done the right thing straight away upon learning about these extreme views that were held by Carston Woodhouse, saying homosexuality is demonic, saying that feminism is demonic, that Islam is poisonous … that [should be] the point at which Ashton Hurn takes a stand and says this person should be disendorsed.”
Woodhouse was approached for comment.
