UQ LNP Club president: 'I openly accept I would be a Nazi Party member'

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UQ LNP Club president: 'I openly accept I would be a Nazi Party member'

By Felicity Caldwell
Updated

A Liberal National Party official has claimed he would have been a member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party if he lived in the 1930s.

Kurt Tucker, the president of the University of Queensland's Liberal National Club, and an undergraduate representative on the university's academic board, said he would have joined the party, which oversaw the genocide of 6 million Jews.

UQ Liberal National Club president Kurt Tucker said he would have been a member of the Nazi party in the 1930s. He has since apologised.

UQ Liberal National Club president Kurt Tucker said he would have been a member of the Nazi party in the 1930s. He has since apologised.Credit: Danielle Cronin

"I openly accept I would be a Nazi Party member if this was 30's Germany, despite obviously opposing a lot of their core ideology," Mr Tucker wrote on a UQ students Facebook page.

"I'm political, and to succeed in politics, public service, military, or even industry you had to be a NSDAP [National Socialist German Workers' Party] member.

UQ LNP Club president Kurt Tucker said he would have been a member of the Nazi Party in the 1930s.

UQ LNP Club president Kurt Tucker said he would have been a member of the Nazi Party in the 1930s.

"I also believe 90 per cent of ALP and LNP members would be the same."

Mr Tucker is also listed online as the Young Nationals federal campaign officer.

In a statement, Mr Tucker said after reflection, he realised his comments were "totally wrong" and said he had no Nazi, Fascist or neo-Nazi sympathies.

"I find the Nazi Party to be totally morally abhorrent and I would never willingly engage with them," Mr Tucker said.

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"I apologise unreservedly for my comments and any offence they may have caused to victims of the evil perpetrated by Nazis and their sympathisers, as well as those whose family, like mine, fought against their regime in the Second World War."

Mr Tucker said he had resigned from all positions within the LNP.

"I would like to state my comments did not in any way reflect the views of the UQ Liberal National Club or the wider LNP community," he said.

Mr Tucker also appears to have deleted his social media accounts, including his Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

The University of Queensland's student politics has long been a training ground for Australia's future politicians, including former premier Anna Bligh and federal MP Wyatt Roy.

Former Young Labor vice-president Kegan Scherf said Mr Tucker's comments were offensive to anyone who had family flee persecution or had relatives die in World War II.

"It's just beyond the pale when it come to being offensive," Mr Scherf said.

Mr Scherf said Mr Tucker should resign from the LNP entirely.

Mr Scherf, a member of the Australia-Israel Labor Dialogue, said he had family members escape persecution and also fight in World War II.

Labor Senator for Victoria Kimberley Kitching called out Mr Tucker's comments in the Senate overnight, saying the UQ LNP Club was a "cradle for many a Liberal politician in the federal Parliament and in the Parliament of Queensland".

Dvir Abramovich, from civil rights organisation the Anti-Defamation Commission, said the comments showed a lack of respect for Holocaust survivors and Australian soldiers who fought the regime.

"It is outrageous that any leader of a political club would openly and cynically declare that in order to move ahead in politics, he would be happy to be part of the Nazi party, whose racist and warped ideology led to the systematic extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of others," Dr Abramovich said.

An LNP spokesman said Mr Tucker had made a foolish comment, had resigned his positions within the LNP and apologised.

"He's learnt a serious lesson," he said.

The spokesman said Mr Tucker remained a member of the LNP but whether future disciplinary action would be taken would be discussed.

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