AN election campaign billboard planned by the Nationals to criticise member for Mildura Ali Cupper’s record has been rejected as an attack ad.
The billboard wording, which would have appeared on an electronic billboard on Fifteenth Street, was to have made no mention of Nationals state candidate Jade Benham, instead focusing on Ms Cupper’s record as an independent MP.
It would have used red crosses to mark Ms Cupper’s “results” in health care and in attempts to win the return of a passenger train to Mildura, but would have given her a green tick for “Voted with Dan Andrews”.
Nationals state director Matt Harris confirmed to Sunraysia Daily that the billboard company had rejected the design “on the grounds that it referred to another candidate”.
He said it had been designed to point out that Ms Cupper’s claim she had delivered results for the community as an independent MP was “misleading and deserves to be challenged”.
The billboard now carries an image of Ms Benham.
Told of the wording rejected for the billboard, Ms Cupper said of the Nationals that “smear and slander is all they’ve got”.
“And they’re cowards, attempting to publish my name but not disclosing theirs,” she said.
“I’m disappointed, but not surprised.”
