Allegra Spender’s office provides time-stamped photo of campaign sign
Allegra Spender's team has shared a time-stamped photo with The AJN showing her poster on its own, as well as their timeline of events
Allegra Spender’s team has shared a time-stamped photo with The AJN from Sunday, March 2 showing her poster on its own fastened to a fence at the intersection of Old South Head and O’Sullivan Roads in Rose Bay.
The office of the Member for Wentworth has also provided The AJN with its timeline of events. According to the timeline, the poster was erected, on its own, and then photographed at 9:45am that day. This appears to be corroborated by the time-stamped photo.
At around midday on Monday, March 3, Spender’s team said it was alerted to a post in the “Jews of Sydney” Facebook group showing a photo of her sign obscuring a poster commemorating Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were abducted from their home in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 and subsequently murdered in Gaza.
“Our team immediately contacted one of the area coordinators for this part of the electorate, who went down to the site. She reported that the Bibas poster had been tucked in behind the Allegra Spender poster, at an angle and not affixed to the fence,” Spender’s office told The AJN.
“Allegra’s poster was firmly affixed to the fence at the top and bottom. She affixed the Bibas poster, with a cable tie, to the fence in the exact position in which she found it. She [the area coordinator] removed Allegra’s poster and moved it 2-3 metres down the fence, away from the Bibas poster – and fixed it in place.”
On Tuesday, Spender’s office said the Daily Telegraph contacted the team about the posters.
“The Daily Telegraph shared a photo with us. The time stamp for this photo was 11.16am on Monday 3rd March. This was more than 24 hours after Allegra’s poster had been put up,” her office said.
The volunteer who initially placed the poster at the site then provided a Statutory Declaration to confirm his version of events. This and the time-stamped photograph from March 2 were provided to the publication at 1:30pm on Tuesday, March 4, Spender’s office said. “The Daily Telegraph confirmed shortly afterwards that they were not running the story,” it added.
In reply, Knox told The AJN on Friday afternoon, “Ms Spender needs to come out clearly to say what she is inferring; that a supporter of the Bibas family has put their poster behind hers. If this is what she saying then that is a serious accusation.”
The Liberal candidate said she had spoken to “many people in Wentworth today who believe the Teal MP’s threat to sue over poster placement is heavy handed and designed to intimidate”.
“The people of Wentworth don’t want us to focus on poster placement. They want us to focus on the issues important to them such as cost of living, the economy and community safety and that’s what I’m doing,” she added.
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