By Casey Neill
A gay Greater Dandenong Council candidate says new councillor Tim Dark has his full support, despite past homophobic comments.
Fellow Paperbark Ward hopeful Brad Woodford even directed his preferences to Cr Dark, despite ousted councillor Peter Brown’s best efforts to derail the alliance.
Mr Woodford said that an email from Mr Brown urged him to ‘google’ Cr Dark to find homophobic and sexist comments he made on social media in 2013.
The comments came to light the following year and led Cr Dark to resign from the Swinburne University Liberal Club.
“I believe Peter Brown is simply displaying a good show of sour grapes at being defeated,” Mr Woodford said.
“Peter Brown was simply trying to disrupt discussions between Tim Dark and myself as he clearly saw our alliance as a threat to his re-election hopes.
“Evidently, his fears were correct.”
Mr Woodford said that very early in the campaign he engaged in a frank and open discussion with Cr Dark and the “unfortunate comments”.
“As a gay man myself, I felt it vital to clear the air on this matter before making decisions on directing my preferences,” he said.
“After some productive discussions with Tim Dark, I decided to direct my preferences to him on the basis that he otherwise shared some similar objectives to me.
“I accepted his acknowledgment that his homophobic comments made on a Facebook page were stupid, immature and not consistent with his actual views.
“I want to make it clear that Tim Dark has my full support and I hope he uses his opportunity in council to bring positive change and a fresh perspective to Greater Dandenong and in particular, Noble Park and Keysborough.”
Cr Dark said that his comments from the past had been previously dealt with.
“I have previously apologised for any offence that may have been caused by remarks made as a first-year university student on social media and reiterate that those views do not reflect the views I currently hold,” he said.
“I commiserate with Mr Brown, however muck-raking is not going to change a democratic outcome and I look forward to smoothing things over with Mr Brown in the future.”
