Labor preferences non-weed smoking Cannabis candidate with trail of antisemitic rants

Legalise Cannabis have dumped their non-weed smoking candidate in WA’s seat of Canning after it was made aware of his antisemitic online posts which accused Israel of “playing the victim” in the Hamas-led October 7 terror attack. The minor party’s candidate Paul Gullan had shared a cartoon to Facebook of Hitler passing a swastika-branded, bloodied baton to Benjamin Netanyahu in a race, with a caption reiterating views that “Hitler was doing the world a favour by exterminating the Jews.” Labor had also preferenced Mr Gullan third from the six registered candidates. Labor’s pick, Jarrad Goold, had placed him above Liberal incumbent MP Andrew Hastie, Australian Christians’ John Raymond Carey, and One Nation’s Fernando Bove respectively. While stating he didn’t “subscribe to these beliefs” online, Mr Gullan added that Jews need to “execute their leaders” “if Jews want to maintain their rights as victims of a holocaust.” In the same post on November 18, he accused Mr Netanyahu of using “self defence” in an “insane lie,” while in a June 16 post labelled him a “f**kwit leader.” More recently on February 16, Mr Gullan shared an image of The Lord of the Rings character Gollum altered to hold an Oscar, with an Israel flag on the left-side of his chest. It was captioned “And the Oscar for best acting goes to Israel for playing the victim”. He has also accused Mr Netanyahu of “orchestrating” the Hamas-led October 7 terror attack on a music festival, which killed 1139 people. Mr Gullan has also stated several times online that he doesn’t smoke weed, despite running to represent a party whose base policy is to decriminalise its use. “I joined the Legalise Cannabis WA Party tonight, even though I do not like Marijuana,” he posted on February 1. Three weeks later he again said: “I drink and don’t smoke weed, as a personal preference.” Just hours after a media enquiry from The West Australian on Tuesday questioning the posts, a Legalised Cannabis Party representative announced Mr Gullan has been disendorsed. “Following recent comments and posts brought to our attention, the Legalise Cannabis Party has made the decision to disendorse Paul Gullan,” a spokesman said. “Upon review, we found that some of the content Mr Gullan has shared online does not align with these principles. “Our party holds firm to a set of core values, including Anti-Discrimination, Tolerance, Human Rights, and Compassion. “The Legalise Cannabis Party is deeply committed to upholding equity, respect, and fairness for all people.” Mr Gullan also preferenced Mr Goold third, however, it’s unclear if a preference deal has been struck between Labor and the minor party. Meanwhile, Mr Hastie has listed Mr Gullan fifth below his Labor rival in third. In another post in December, Mr Gullan said Labor had been a “f**k wit” for turning down a Greens coalition and labelled the party as “scared little nancy boys and girls” after Bill Shorten’s shock loss in the 2019 election. He added that “the Teals have done an awesome job in keeping Labor true” while resharing a Climate 200 post calling for donations for their Federal Election candidates. In another post he says Australia politicians don’t have “balls” like US President Donald Trump to propose decriminalising Cannabis, which he labelled “plain unAustralian”. “I think if Trump, Musk and RFK Jr were elected to Australia, that would be a super saving on the public purse strings, but I don’t see our current politicians having the balls to propose this,” he said. But he admitted he was struggling to secure campaign support: “I want to become a politician, as I am sick and tired of the status quo, but I am not gaining any followers”. He also warned of “mass human brainwashing”, accused mining magnates Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart of “selling to big pharma” and Trump of “calling the kettle black” when labelled dictator Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Mr Goold was contacted for comment but declined.