The Liberal Party candidate for the high-profile Western Sydney seat of Fowler has apologised for a series of offensive social media posts.
WARNING: This article contains racist and offensive language.
Vivek Singha expressed regret over multiple posts on social media in which he used a derogatory term for Indigenous Australians and criticised federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek over a personal family matter.
The posts on X date back to 2023, during the lead-up to the Voice to Parliament referendum, where Mr Singha advocated for a ‘No’ vote.
In October 2023, an anti-Voice post from his account read: “50K per a*, already being spent, they’ll want 500K per head.”* The platform flagged the post for potentially violating its rules against “hateful content.”
Between August and October 2023, Mr Singha posted several times using similarly offensive terminology for First Nations people, including a claim that: “Everybody needs to wake up to the sleeping lazybags (the Alboriginals).”
In another October post, Mr Singha appeared to target Minister Plibersek after reports that her daughter had experienced domestic violence, writing:
“Worst of it all, why are YOU @tanya_plibersek of all people standing for others when you couldn’t even look after your own daughter’s safety… Any word coming out of this person is as good as a puff frm the backside!!! cannot keep my home safe give me a blank cheque for a***.”*
More than a week later, excerpts from media reports about Ms Plibersek’s husband, Michael Coutts-Trotter — who has previously spoken about his past heroin addiction and conviction — were shared on the account with the comment:
“Wow it is a great team (NOT) that is now leading the nation!!! That’s why her daughter was bashed.”
The X account became inactive on Sunday afternoon. A Liberal Party spokesperson has been contacted for comment.
In a statement, Mr Singha said:
“I apologise for the social media posts. I should not have expressed myself in that way and I sincerely regret doing so.”
Mr Singha is not considered a strong contender for Fowler, a seat expected to be fought between independent MP Dai Le and Labor candidate Tu Le. Labor lost the seat in 2022 after controversially attempting to parachute former senator Kristina Keneally into the diverse electorate.
The emergence of Mr Singha’s posts is likely to raise further questions about the NSW Liberal Party’s candidate vetting processes.
Earlier this month, the Liberal Party disendorsed its candidate for the seat of Whitlam, Ben Britton, after video surfaced of him claiming the Australian Defence Force should remove women from combat corps to “fix” the military.
Mr Britton argued: “Their hips are being destroyed because they can’t cope with the carrying of heavy loads,” views the NSW Liberals later said were “inconsistent with the party’s position.”
