Independent candidate Tony Windsor says he is seeking legal advice over a front-page newspaper story that alleged he was a schoolyard bully, as the hard-fought campaign for New England turned increasingly personal and nasty yesterday.
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The Australian reported on yesterday that Mr Windsor, the local MP until retiring at the 2013 election, had physically mistreated other students at Tamworth’s Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in the 1960s, according to some former classmates.
Mr Windsor, who has had a hostile relationship with News Corp since his support for the Gillard minority government, said he would not be responding to the “gutter journalism”.
“It should be seen in the context of a very close election campaign for the seat of New England,” he said in a statement.
“I will not dignify the article by commenting any further. I have referred the article to my legal advisers.”
Mr Windsor is running against sitting MP and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. Fairfax Media has contacted Mr Windsor for further comment.
A recent Newspoll put Mr Joyce marginally ahead in the battle for New England – on 51 per cent to
49 per cent – a turnaround from previous indications Mr Windsor was in a winning position based on strong preference flows.
Mr Windsor’s challenge has forced Mr Joyce, also the Nationals leader and Agriculture Minister, to spend more time campaigning in his own seat at the expense of the Coalition’s country-wide efforts.
On Monday, the former member called for the withdrawal of an “offensive gutter ad” released by the Nationals that depicted him as having cheated on New England when he backed former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard.
Mr Windsor said the ad, which showed two women chatting about him over coffee, implied he had been unfaithful to his wife, Lyn, and had left her “deeply upset”.
The Nationals rejected the claims as “faux outrage” and argued “any reasonable person can see” that it didn’t suggest any real romantic relationship.
They said Mr Windsor “currently has five attack ads on air in New England” and have offered to remove theirs if he does the same.
The battle for New England and the deputy prime minister’s seat has turned on another nasty note.In the newspaper article in The Australian, Mr Windsor was accused by four former Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School students of intimidating younger students, including some detailed claims of alleged physical punishment from Wallabadah horse breeder Richard Bull, former rugby league first grader and Moree farmer Tim Williams and retired solicitor Peter Young, in the late 1960s.
The Australian news story plumbed new depths even for a life-and-death political struggle.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, campaigning in Brisbane, declined to buy into the debate saying he would not engage in “personality politics”.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said the Nationals were threatened by Mr Windsor’s popularity in New England.