MLC Wes Fang has taken aim at Riverina independent candidate Jenny Rolfe for her team not removing political signage following the federal election. Photo: Wes Fang.
Wagga-based Nationals MLC Wes Fang has set his sights on independent candidate Jenny Rolfe, claiming she’s been too slow to remove her political signage after Saturday’s federal election.
Ms Rolfe, though, was quick to hit back, accusing Mr Fang’s Coalition colleagues of breaching council rules by placing their signs on trees on public land.
“This morning, a team of NSW Nationals members have been busy across the electorate, removing all our Michael McCormack MP election signage,” Mr Fang wrote on Facebook.
“During this Riverina campaign, election signage became an issue. It’s interesting to note, despite their numerous criticisms to the contrary, both Jenny Rolfe for Riverina and Richard Foley for Riverina don’t appear to be as diligent.
“In particular, I’d encourage those who were funded in the tens of thousands of dollars through Together for Riverina, by Climate 200, to ensure they do the right thing and not leave their election signage for others to clean up. It’s important to practice (sic) what you preach!”
Ms Rolfe said her team had up to a week to remove any signage.
“The reality is, the fact is, we have one week to remove all campaign material,” she said.
“We have a strategy that we will ensure that they are all collected within the required deadlines.
“We are absolutely complying with the rules and I think the implication that we have not done so is, particularly in the context of the Nationals not following the rules throughout the electorate and their blatant disregard for the requirements of each of the councils and the local government areas, a bit rich and an unnecessary pot shot.”
The Australian Electoral Commission opted to stay out of the Fang v Rolfe stoush, saying it was not responsible for sign placement and had no authority to impose penalties on those who kept corflutes up after the election.
Mr Fang implied that leaving signs up was hypocritical of a candidate who ran on a pro-environment platform.
“It’s their [Ms Rolfe’s] criticism of our signage previously that was what prompted [me to respond],” he said.
“But also the fact that they then leave this all around, and we’re diligent in cleaning ours up. We want people to know that we care about the electorate, and so we demonstrate that by putting in an effort, but we are also responsible, and so we clean it up the next day.
“I think that it was quite telling that, particularly Jenny Rolfe, basically said that, ‘Oh, well, we don’t have to take ours down yet, we’ve got a week. I’m going to use the maximum amount of time possible.
“The reason she’s doing that is because as soon as the election was over, she was on a bus to Adelaide. So not only did she have no confidence in the fact that she might win or be successful, but she’s left everyone with the mess.”
Ms Rolfe rejected Mr Fang’s claims, saying she had fulfilled her duty to her role as a candidate and her trip to Adelaide was a responsibility linked to her small business.
“I’ve travelled to Adelaide for work. I’m here for the next two days,” she said.
“I’m returning to Wagga on Wednesday, and to imply that I have abandoned, abandoned my responsibilities, again, is calling my character into question, and I do take exception to that, because we have an entire campaign team who is working very hard to ensure that we are following the rules and that all of the campaign material is collected.
“I will be back within the timeframe required, and I will be overseeing that again directly.
“So I think it is unreasonable to cast aspersions on my integrity in such a calculating way, particularly given that we have gone to great lengths throughout this entire campaign to conduct ourselves with integrity and in compliance with the rules.
“I think it is an amazing double standard to firstly not comply with the rules themselves, and then to point the finger at us as though we have done anything wrong when we have not. We are taking this very seriously.”
Most of the comments on Mr Fang’s Facebook page were critical of his post.
“You’d expect a bit of humility from the Nats after losing the election and their NSW Senate seat,” one Facebook user said.
