The Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam expressed a string of controversial views on fringe podcasts earlier than his preselection, together with the declare that ladies shouldn’t serve in fight positions with the Australian Defence Power (ADF).
Benjamin Britton, who has been praised by Peter Dutton as an “outstanding candidate”, ran unsuccessfully for the United Australia Get together on the 2022 federal election. He has since claimed “diversity and equity quotas, Marxist ideology and woke ideologies” have weakened the nation’s defences, singling out a 2013 change permitting girls to be recruited into frontline fight positions.
Amongst Britton’s different claims expressed on the podcasts are:
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Publicity to pornography results in gender dysphoria and “transgender desires”;
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Labor deliberately retains some electorates poor to have a greater likelihood of profitable them;
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Australia ought to “look at the Isle of Man” for classes on introducing a flat tax fee to draw billionaires;
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The schooling system has “brainwashed” younger Australians with Marxist ideology.
Interviewed on a podcast hosted by the right-wing determine Joel Jammal final July, Britton stated he had served with “tremendous” girls within the ADF however criticised the recruitment of ladies for fight roles.
“Basically, long story short, if we’re to fix our defence force, unfortunately, they’re going to need to remove females from combat corps,” Britton stated.
“Their hips are being destroyed because they can’t cope with the carrying of the heavy loads and the heavy impacts that’s required from doing combat-related jobs,” he stated.
“I knew some of the toughest men I’ve ever met in my life, absolute nails. War left them a shaking mess. Drug addicted. Can’t go outside the house because they have panic attacks … If war can do that to them and destroy them, why would you want to send your beautiful women? Your females – the ones that are the backbone of your society. Your society only exists because of women … Why would you want to sacrifice them in war, on the altar?”
The Liberal celebration’s hope for Whitlam, held by the retiring minister Stephen Jones on an 8.3% margin, stated girls despatched to the frontline in Ukraine had been killed as a result of they “didn’t stand a chance”.
“You’re seeing all the bodies in there – braided hair didn’t stand a chance. Should never have been there in the first place. Can barely hold up a rifle, and they put them on the frontline to just be killed, and … you’re throwing away one of the most precious things that you have in your society,” Britton stated.
About 20% of navy personnel are girls, and the ADF has made efforts to enhance recruitment lately. Girls had been allowed to take fight roles for the primary time in 2013, and from 2014, they may apply for particular forces roles contingent on passing a bodily and health examination.
There’s no proof that requirements have been lowered to extend the variety of girls taking over frontline roles.
On the podcasts, he additionally linked adolescent publicity to pornography as “pushing” younger males into “transgender desires”.
“This is why we see extreme, unrealistic sexual practices and desires in the community [that] have risen massively over the last, say, 40 years, as a direct result of pornography,” he stated.
Britton lined many different areas on the perimeter podcasts, together with conspiracies, akin to one claiming Labor deliberately saved protected seats poor, his help for Australia turning into a tax haven just like the Isle of Man and his opposition to the “Big Brother” social media age verification system supported by each main events.
In an August podcast, Britton claimed the schooling system “brainwashed” and “indoctrinated” younger Australians with Marxist ideologies.
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“It’s a disaster, but it shows how much of a failure our education system has been because no longer do they take children and teach them how to think, they teach them what to think, and they teach them the wrong thing,” he stated.
Britton additionally recommended Labor and the Greens had been utilizing Marxist ideology to trick voters into supporting them earlier than abandoning them in energy, and stated their supporters wouldn’t be able to “running Gulags”.
Britton was preselected to run for the protected Labor seat, which takes in elements of the south coast and southern highlands, in December 2024, with the opposition pitching him as a champion for small enterprise and housing possession.
In his endorsement announcement, Britton was described as working as a chief data safety officer within the defence business sector. He works at Britton Maritime Programs, based mostly in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire. It’s owned by Stephen Britton, and contains a private endorsement on its web site from the previous prime minister Scott Morrison.
In January, Dutton posted an image of himself and Britton on Instagram throughout a go to to Moss Vale.
“Ben’s working hard in his community and standing up for local families and small businesses, drawing on his dedication as a veteran and his leadership in the defence industry,” the opposition chief wrote within the publish.
“This area has been ignored by a local Labor member who is asleep at the wheel, but with our positive plans and an outstanding candidate like Ben, we’ll get this region and our country back on track.”
The veteran will face two feminine candidates within the contest for Whitlam: Labor’s Carol Berry and the Nationwide’s Katrina Hodgkinson.
Neither Britton nor the Coalition’s marketing campaign headquarters responded to a request for remark.
