The South Australian Greens have been warned to act with respect after a candidate allegedly grabbed an Australian Conservatives volunteer during a heated dispute outside a polling booth yesterday.
The Advertiser reports Australian Greens candidate for Sturt, Paul Boundy , was forced to apologise to a female volunteer after a confrontation at the Payneham early-voting centre.
Conservatives leader Senator Cory Bernardi confirmed a report had been made to his office by the volunteer and said it was alleged that Mr Boundy challenged his party’s volunteer saying “what is commonsense?”.
“She turned and started to walk away,” Senator Bernardi said but then he, “grabbed her. Others came to her defence and said leave her alone.”
Senator Bernardi said the incident was absolutely inappropriate, “It’s just inappropriate for anyone to be abused, let alone grabbed by anyone but particularly a candidate,” Senator Bernardi said, “If she wants to make a formal complaint the party will back her.”
A spokesman for SA Greens said, “Paul Boundy, has apologised to a volunteer for the Australian Conservatives for getting involved in a dispute at the Payneham polling booth,” and has, “acknowledged that his behaviour was not in conformity with Greens guidelines covering volunteers and candidates.”
