Liberal Party reshuffles misogynists in the seat of Whitlam

The Liberal Party is like a members-only boys' club — except the boys aren't there when members need them the most, writes Zayda Dollie.

LIVE BY the Bro Code, die by the Bro Code.

If you are drawn to the warm embrace of a boys' club, then you’d better hope for its protection when things heat up.

The Liberal Party has just ousted one of its own candidates for making disparaging comments about women, which resurfaced last week ahead of the May Federal Election.

With only a few weeks remaining before the country votes, the Liberals have turned their backs on one of their loudest community voices.

Benjamin Britton – a former infantry paratrooper once hailed as an “excellent candidate” by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton – has been cancelled by his own party. Why? For saying women shouldn’t serve on the frontline.

Where is the boys' club when you need it most? Where are Britton’s defenders – the ones who were no doubt part of the echo chamber reaffirming his views – which led to his preselection in December?

And most importantly, whatever happened to, "Bros before hoes"?

Britton now finds himself a victim of the same Bro Code, which would have encouraged him and his views in the first place. Such is the incubating nature of bro culture — the very people amplifying voices like Britton’s are notably silent as soon as that voice comes under heat. In other words, conform to the clan or be cast out from it.

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Misters before sisters

Once praised as a “community leader” in Illawarra in NSW, Britton has now been removed from the Liberal Party’s website and replaced by new candidate Nathaniel Smith for the seat of Whitlam.

A party spokesperson said:

“This follows a decision to disendorse Benjamin Britton over views expressed, which were not previously disclosed and are inconsistent with the party’s position.”

Are they inconsistent, though?

The views the party is now condemning were shared in lengthy detail in a two-hour-long panel discussion on two fringe podcasts, The Ark and Commanding the Narrative. Heavily framed by right-wing conservatism and Christian rhetoric, these “political” podcasts can only be described as a forum for like-minded men.

The podcasts stream on the "alt-tech" video platform Rumble, which claims to be "immune to cancel culture". The platform is popular among conservative and right-wing users, who fear censorship from larger platforms.

Last year, Britton told podcast host Joel Jammal that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) needed fixing.

He said:

“Basically, long story short, if we’re to fix our defence force, unfortunately, they’re going to need to remove females from combat corps.”

Britton further elaborated:

“Their hips are being destroyed because they can't cope with the carrying of the heavy loads and the heavy impact that's required for doing combat-related jobs.”

Britton reasoned this by saying he had served alongside men and women in the ADF and had seen the negative impacts of war on both.

He said:

“I knew some of the toughest men I’ve ever met in my life, absolute nails. War left them a shaking mess. Drug addicted. Can’t go outside the house because they have panic attacks. If war can do that to them and destroy them, why would you want to send your beautiful women?”

Ahead of Anzac Day, when male and female ADF personnel will be leading services across Australia in honour of their fallen peers, the statement comes as an affront to the women who are currently serving their country.

Rather than retract the statement after news of his dismissal broke, Britton doubled down on it in an interview with Sydney radio station 2GB on Tuesday.

Britton told 2GB:

“My position is the same as Andrew Hastie, the Shadow Minister for Defence and the great Jim Molan — that women should not serve specifically in combat roles, specifically in the Army itself.”

Maybe women should be the ones to decide whether they should or shouldn’t serve specifically in combat roles. Perhaps women should be the ones to decide whether they can or can’t cope with the requirements of combat-related jobs or the impact of war.

What’s astonishing is that although the Liberal Party has ousted Britton for expressing views purportedly “inconsistent” with its position, the idea that the government should be imposing laws on women for their own biological protection is consistent with a view held by Britton’s replacement, Nathaniel Smith.

In fact, new candidate Smith’s public record is even worse than Britton’s.

In 2019, Smith rallied against a NSW Bill, which eventually became the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019 and made pregnancy termination a non-punishable crime for women and their health practitioners.

Smith, who opposed the Bill, told media at the time:

“This will not protect women, this should not be going into the Health Care Act, it should remain in the Crimes Act...This is not an issue like a hip replacement, a nose job, a fake tan — this is a human being.”

The reform was considered a necessary update to the Crimes Act 1900.

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Clan of the cavemen

The similarities in both content and language between the now-disendorsed Britton and his replacement Smith are uncanny.

Last July, Britton likened environmental activists to spiritually void people who needed a cause to replace religion.

Britton said:

“That’s why they go to things like climate change or any of the other Marxist agendas.”

Smith used the same phrase in his maiden speech when he took over the seat of Wollondilly in 2019, which he held until 2023.

Smith said:

“I want my children to learn about history, geography, mathematics, Western civilisation, science and the arts; not Safe Schools, gender fluidity and other forms of Marxist brainwashing.”

Smith was asked this week whether he still held these views.

He told The Guardian:

“Australia’s school students are falling further behind their international peers, while the Labor Government is encouraging activism rather than making commonsense improvements to the school curriculum.”

Even after omitting the term “Marxist”, the tool of stigmatising mainstream thought like the school curriculum and branding any ideas outside the Liberal Party program as activism is one Britton and Smith both use.

That Britton’s views were not “disclosed” to the party seems unlikely, considering Britton has been excessively vocal about his views and continues to be even after his dumping.

He giveth and he taketh away

Britton told 2GB on Tuesday he was ousted as a result of a “witch hunt”.

He said:

"It’s the factions within the party that didn’t want me there. It’s because I wouldn’t, you know, sign up to a faction. I wouldn’t be controlled...

"The [Liberal Party] left faction works in tandem with members of the right faction, who are traitors, to stab Peter Dutton in the back and ensure he doesn’t get elected as the prime minister, so they can roll him as leader. That’s what’s happening."

Britton said last year he felt the Liberal Party was returning to its roots and had become “the de facto working class party for the country”.

Dutton, as well as Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie, have both distanced themselves from Britton.

Dutton said on Tuesday:

"There were a number of issues – not just those that have been made public – in relation to the candidate and we took a decision to replace Ben as the candidate. That's the decision we've taken. I wish him well.”

A spokesperson for Hastie said:

"Mr Britton has never met Mr Hastie, nor has he volunteered, worked or interviewed for a role in his office. Any suggestion of a professional connection is incorrect."

Smith, on the other hand, is being welcomed as a last-minute stand-in.

In the Liberal Party’s announcement, the party brought attention to Smith’s role as head of the NSW Master Plumbers Association. It failed to mention, however, that Smith had become one of three directors to Australians for Natural Gas in March — a detail revealed in records from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Labor MP Stephen Jones, who previously held the seat of Whitlam, said Britton’s comments were “not a good look” for the Liberal Party.

Jones said:

"Everything they’ve said about him today they’ve known about him for months.”

And that is not a good look, indeed.

Zayda Dollie is an IA assistant editor, who believes in the power of stories and having female voices heard. You can follow her on IG @zayda_dollie_hendricks, X @ZaydaD or Bluesky @zaydadollie.