Shire of Harvey candidate says he regrets string of bizarre social media posts

A Harvey Shire Council candidate throwing his hat in the ring for this year’s local government elections says he regrets a string of bizarre social media posts that have emerged including one that states all people living in Australia should “speak f...in’ English”. In a post to his Facebook page in 2015, Tristan Payne — who is one of eight hopefuls vying for six seats next month — posted an image that says: “This is Australia. We eat meat, we drink beer and we speak f...in’ English.” About one in five people in the town, which is known for its diverse population, was born overseas, with hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into migrant services in the past year alone, including a Harvey Community Resource Centre-run Multicultural Social Support Group. The organisation was also this year given $136,000 in Lotterywest funding to continue its Noongar Waangkiny language classes aimed at keeping the dialect alive, with about 590 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the town. Mr Payne, 27, has also made a number of conspiracy posts about the government “playing” with the public, including one that says: “F... the government. Don’t believe them... now its (sic) time for us to play them. All you need to do is wake up.” Other strange posts to his page include asking why “knocking the f... outta some c...” needed to “be so punishable”, a “meme” about homosexual butchers and an image about “Spongebob Squarepants” tampons for teenage girls. Mr Payne wrote on his page in 2013: “I hope you had fun running your mouth cuz (sic) now you f...ing gone sick of c...s running there (sic) mouth your (sic) next.” Only days earlier a post by him stated: “Funny versin (sic) a humpback, a faggot, and (sic) old cripple and a dum (sic) white girl.” Mr Payne said he had matured since writing the posts and did not mean offence to anyone who read them. “I’ve got lots of Indigenous family members, and I’ve got lots of Filipino members in my family who have married into my family and I would never offend anyone, not on purpose. “I try to be nice to everyone and if you know me you’d know that I’m a family type of person, I don’t go out of my way to have an argument with anyone.” Mr Payne said he would be upset if his social media posts affected his campaign and that he would be a “good asset” to the council. “If someone really wants to take offence to that and hold it against me then that’s their prerogative, but if they’ve got an issue my number’s on there, feel free to ring me and talk to me about it,” he said. The council election will be held on October 16.

Shire of Harvey candidate says he regrets string of bizarre social media posts

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