Controversial failed Liberal candidate Katherine Deves has dug herself another hole in a trainwreck interview about her new political aspirations.
Ms Deves was trounced in Tony Abbott‘s old seat of Warringah at last year’s federal election by independent Zali Steggall, after a disastrous campaign.
Her bid took a turn for the worse early when old transphobic tweets were unearthed, and never recovered after she refused to apologise.
Despite her catastrophic failure to regain the blue-ribbon seat, Ms Deves threw her hat in the ring to replace the late senator Jim Molan.
The Liberal Party can nominate a successor to fill Major-General Molan’s seat after his death on January 16, who would then defend it at the next election.
Ms Deves nominated herself for the vacancy with the announcement opening her up to a brutal grilling on Sky News about her suitability for parliament.
‘You have offended transgender children and their parents, you’ve had to apologise to the Jewish community, you even had to visit the Sydney Holocaust Museum after making Nazi comparisons,’ she was asked.
‘What on Earth makes you think you would be the best person to replace the highly respected and much-loved Senator Jim Molan?’
Ms Deves tried to compare herself to General Molan, noting they were both conservative politicians.
‘He had a very distinguished career in the military, I have read his book,’ she said.
‘With respect to what I think I could bring to the table, well I am a strong conservative woman… I can demonstrate, to the people that I would represent that I would go in there fighting.
‘And I do align myself with some of the values that Jim had, particularly around issues of, you know, defending our freedom of speech, defending our great nation, standing up for aspirational Australian families, and standing up for common sense.’
Controversial failed Liberal candidate Katherine Deves has dug herself another hole in a trainwreck interview about her new political aspirations
Despite her failure to regain the blue-ribbon seat, Ms Deves threw her hat in the ring to replace the late senator Jim Molan
General Molan was a controversial MP after being accused of war crimes during the Iraq war in 2004, which he strongly denied.
He was in command of local coalition forces when the city of Fallujah was surrounded and heavily bombed, causing heavy civilian casualties and earning him the nickname ‘The Butcher of Fallujah’.
Then in 2017 he shared anti-Islam content from far-right group Britain First, but denied the videos were racist.
Ms Deves said attending the Sydney Holocaust Museum was an ‘incredibly moving and memorable experience’, but was told she only had to go because she posted an offensive tweet.
Her comments were actually a part of a panel discussion, not a tweet, in 2021 where she likened her ant-trans activism to resistance to the Nazi occupation of France.
Ms Deves tried to explain that she was ‘discussing the rise of fascist regimes’ and how their ‘deeply authoritarian and socialist ideologies are infiltrating our societies’.
She admitted it was a ‘highly inappropriate’ analogy and she was grateful the Jewish community showed her she was wrong.
‘I’m not excusing it, but I have learned that it was absolutely the wrong thing to do and I showed contrition and I apologised,’ she said.
Katherine Deves stood for the seat of Warringah at the last election and was trounced after her transphobic tweets emerged calling transgender children ‘mutilated’, among other controversial statements
Ms Deves again defended the anti-transgender views that sank her political campaign.
She argued there was nothing ‘divisive’ about saying ‘men cannot be women, and that in certain circumstances biological sex matters and that women and girls have the right to privacy, dignity, and safety in certain contexts’.
But the interviewer argued Ms Deves went too far with her wild claims that provoked widespread outrage.
‘A lot of people stand up for women’s rights without going that step further and offending people,’ she said.
Ms Deves insisted her campaign for Warringah was supported by ‘thousands of people’ from ‘all across NSW, Australia, indeed the world’.
This was despite her losing to Olympic medalist Ms Steggall 60.96 per cent to 39.04 per cent at the election, after preferences.
Her primary vote was just 33.35 per cent, a 5.66 per cent swing away from the Liberals compared to when Mr Abbott lost the seat in 2019.
The frontrunner to replace General Molan, Catholic Schools NSW boss Dallas McInerney, pulled out two weeks ago, leaving former NSW transport minister Andrew Constance the likely selection.
