A Labor candidate has been forced to apologise for comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and describing Sydney radio broadcaster Alan Jones as an ‘old dog’.
Katie Gompertz, who is running in the state seat of Hornsby on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, issued a statement after being caught on Twitter likening the American President to the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews.
‘I am sorry for posting offensive material and deeply regret doing so,’ she said on Thursday morning.
Labor candidate Katie Gompertz (right with Opposition Leader Michael Daley) has been forced to apologise for comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and describing Sydney radio broadcaster Alan Jones as an ‘old dog’
‘I am particularly sorry for offending survivors of the Holocaust.’
She added the Hebrew term for the Holocaust to admit her wrongdoing.
‘No one should use comparisons to the Shoah. I was wrong,’ she said.
In 2016, Ms Gompertz tweeted images of Time magazine covers of Hitler and President Trump, using the hashtag ‘#HindsightShould Work’.
That year, she told her Facebook followers Jones, 2GB’s top-rating breakfast radio broadcaster, was an ‘old dog’ who ‘should have been put down years ago’.
As Labor’s federal candidate for Bradfield in 2016, Ms Gompertz criticised her own party’s immigration policies, which favour offshore detention for asylum seekers who arrive by boat.
The left-faction candidate described Labor leader Bill Shorten, in a Facebook post, as the head of a ‘weakened right-wing’ Opposition.
In 2016, Ms Gompertz (pictured) tweeted images of Time magazine covers of Hitler and President Trump, using the hashtag ‘#HindsightShould Work’
Despite her apology, Chris Haviland, Labor’s federal candidate for Bradfield who is also secretary of Labor’s Hornsby branch, described The Daily Telegraph story as a ‘total beat up’.
‘I don’t think it’s a major controversy,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.
‘I don’t think she’s the only person who has compared Donald Trump to Hitler or lots of other people. I don’t think it’s novel.’
Mr Haviland, a former federal Labor MP, in November angrily grabbed a Daily Mail Australia reporter’s camera phone after being asked how to prevent Islamic terror, as two Labor Party branch members dressed as Bananas in Pyjamas looked on.
Dvir Abramovich, the chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, a Jewish group, acknowledged Ms Gompertz’s apology but described her likening of President Trump to Hitler as ‘wrong and reckless’.
Gompertz, who is running in the state seat of Hornsby, issued a statement after being caught on Facebook likening the American President to the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews
‘Such repugnant comparisons are not only misguided and historically wrong, and are insulting to the victims and survivors, but they trivialise the slaughter of millions,’ Dr Abramovich told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It also dishonours the enormous sacrifices made by those diggers who fought to defeat the Nazis.
‘People are of course entitled to criticise Trump, his policies and the troubling things that he has said, but they should not compare him with the Fuhrer to score political points or to make their case.’
As a Labor candidate, Ms Gompertz has little chance on March 23 of winning the safe state Liberal seat of Hornsby, which Minister for Better Regulation Matt Kean held in 2015 with an 18.9 per cent margin.
Despite Ms Gompertz (right) issuing an apology Chris Haviland (left), Labor’s federal candidate for Bradfield who is also secretary of Labor’s Hornsby branch, described the story as a ‘total beat up’