The United Australia party has been criticised for picturing one of its candidates in military uniform in political advertisements, an act defence advocates say is “wrong” and could be interpreted as suggesting defence support for the party.
Clive Palmer’s UAP is again running a vast number of candidates across every lower house seat. This week, the UAP used full-page ads in major Australian newspapers to publish the names, mobile phone numbers and pictures of each candidate.
One of the candidates, Benjamin Britton, who is running in the New South Wales electorate of Cunningham, was pictured wearing a beret.
Defence has in previous elections warned political candidates against using their military uniform to campaign for political office, saying it threatens the independence of the Australian Defence Force. In 2019, it sent official notices to former military members standing for election, warning them against appearing in uniform during campaigning.
The Australia Defence Association, an independent watchdog monitoring defence matters, criticised the UAP for picturing Britton in the beret, saying it was “wrong” and should cease.
ADA executive director, Neil James, said the beret appears to be an older version of the beret worn by 3rd battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, indicating Britton is a veteran.
James said representing military service in such a fashion, where it was the only available image of the candidate, suggested to voters that the ADF supports the person’s candidacy. He said the practice, if allowed to continue, risked politicising the military.
“You’ve got to condemn this. No one will support this. No one in defence,” he said.
“It’s wrong, I don’t care about how proud he is about his service, it’s wrong to misrepresent the ADF as endorsing his candidacy.”
Britton, who did not respond to a request for comment, is not the first to use military uniform in this way.
In 2016, the veteran turned Liberal MP for Canning, Andrew Hastie, was ousted from the army reserve for using campaign banners portraying him in uniform. At the time he defended their use, saying: “It’s just a hint at, ‘Hey, for the past 13 years, I’ve been serving in uniform’ and my formative experiences as a leader were with the Australian Defence Force’.”
The ADA made the same criticism in 2020 when Scott Morrison used images of the military in advertisements about the government’s bushfire response.
“It’s simple. You don’t use the defence force for party political advantage,” James said at the time.
A number of other candidates either work with Palmer or are related to him. Martin Brewster, Palmer’s nephew and Queensland Nickel procurement director, is running for the Senate. James McDonald, also running for the Senate, was Palmer’s chief of staff and has worked for Palmer in other businesses.
Domenic Martino, the party’s lead Senate candidate in NSW, also serves as an executive for several mining and gas companies, including coalminer Cokal.
