The New South Wales Liberal party has distanced itself from homophobic comments made by the former MP and Sky News commentator Ross Cameron, who described the party as “basically a gay club” at an anti-Islamic event in Sydney on Thursday night, according to a Fairfax Media report.
“I don’t mind that they are gay, I just wish, like Hadrian, they would build a wall,” Cameron told a meeting of the far-right Q Society, Fairfax reported.
Cameron, knowing that a Sydney Morning Herald reporter was present, described the paper as the “Sydney Morning Homosexual”.
“Trigger warning for the Herald, there are heterosexuals in the room…I have to warn you there are some males who are attracted to females in this room.”
Cameron later defended the comments, and described himself as “pro-gay”, despite his opposition to same-sex marriage.
He said using the term “Sydney Morning Homosexual” was not anti-gay, but anti-Sydney Morning Herald.
“I don’t see a single sentence of my remarks which is critical of gays,” he told Sky News.
He said he was sick of “state-sponsored political correctness”, describing the Sydney Morning Herald as a “bully”.
He offered an apology to anyone offended by the “reporting of these comments”.
Sky News presenter, Janine Perrett, responded:
“That was the worst apology I’ve ever heard.”
Also speaking at the Q Society event was cartoonist Larry Pickering, who reportedly said not all Muslims were bad because some “do chuck pillow-biters off buildings”.
“Let’s be honest, I can’t stand Muslims,” Pickering was quoted as saying. “If they are in the same street as me, I start shaking.”
Cameron was invited to comment on Pickering’s remarks on Friday afternoon.
“It was unhelpful to the cause,” he told Sky News.
Asked whether it was offensive, he replied:
“I’m sure it was offensive, that’s why I would not have made that remark.”
He later said he did not condone the remarks and did not agree with them, but described Pickering as a “comic artist” who was attempting a “gag”.
Q Society member and anti-halal campaigner Kirralie Smith, who was at the event, alleged the comments had been taken out of context. She tweeted several times after Fairfax Media’s report on Friday, describing Cameron as a “free speech advocate”.
She accused Fairfax Media of ignoring the plight of “victims of jihad” to create a storm about comments that “many of us didn’t even hear”.
“I don’t condone violence. I believe in free speech even when I disagree. Actions can be condemned but ideas must be debated,” Smith said.
A spokeswoman for the Liberal party of NSW told Guardian Australia the party was neither aware of the event nor Cameron’s speech. She said Cameron was “not speaking on behalf of the organisation”.
Cameron already faces suspension from the party, after he launched a scathing attack on the then treasurer Gladys Berejiklian, whom he accused of sabotaging the party’s prospects for democratic reform.
A motion for his removal will be considered at the next meeting of the party’s state executive, due on 24 February.
The Q Society describes itself as a “not-for-profit civil rights organisation”. Advertisements for the event said it was part of the group’s “Halal Choices” campaign.
The group is being sued for defamation for claiming the Islamic certification industry is corrupt and funds “the push for sharia law in Australia”.
That case was brought by Mohamed El-Mouelhy, the head of one of Australia’s largest certifiers, the Halal Certification Authority.
Items were auctioned at Thursday night’s event to support the society’s legal defence fund, including an anti-Islamic cartoon by Pickering.
The Q Society was due to hold another event in Melbourne on Friday evening, featuring the independent senator Cory Bernardi and LNP MP George Christensen as speakers.
Neither could be contacted for comment on Friday.
