Australian politician criticized for "handicapped" gaffe

From The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia:

A blind Labor candidate says he is "stunned and insulted" by a jibe about disabled people made by former Liberal leader Andrew Peacock (pictured) in his former electorate August 9.

"You'd need to be pretty handicapped not to appreciate that this [Labor] government is dissolving before your eyes daily," Mr Peacock told ABC 24 after joining the campaign in his old electorate of Kooyong in Victoria this morning.

The comments were jumped on by Labor, whose candidate for Kooyong is Steve Hurd, a local barrister who was born with a severe visual impairment and is legally blind.

"To say that just because a person is in a wheelchair, or can't see or hear, that they are unable to have a political opinion is mean-spirited and shows a huge contempt for people with impairments," Labor's parliamentary secretary for disability Bill Shorten said in a statement.

Mr Hurd said he was "amazed" by Mr Peacock's remarks.

"One of the reasons I'm running is because I want to show that people with disabilities are viable members in the community and the political process," he said.

"For him to say that is insulting, and I hope the rest of his party don't share the same opinion.

"I was amazed and stunned. I thought 'I can't believe he said that.'

"There would be some saying it's a gift for Labor, but I don't see it as a gift. I just see it as depressing. The whole point of democracy is that everybody is of equal value."

Mr Peacock's comments come after Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was forced to apologise last week after the government quickly seized upon one of his comments as offensive to handicapped people.

The Opposition Leader, while outlining his plans for the reform of parliamentary procedure, said that he wanted question time to flow into the political debate of the day without "waffly ministerial statements" on things such as "the accessibility of cinemas" coming in between.

Mr Hurd today said the Coalition appeared to have a negative attitude towards handicapped people.

"It just shows that there's an insensitivity and I would argue a question mark over their attitudes to disability," he said.

Mr Peacock, a former foreign minister, opposition leader and ambassador to the United States, made the controversial remark in his old stamping ground of Kew, shaking hands and posing for photographs as he lent his support to the Liberals' candidate, Josh Frydenberg.

In Mr Frydenberg's Cotham Road campaign office, Mr Peacock worked the room like the veteran he is, catching up with old friends such as former Nationals leader Peter Nixon and former federal Liberal MP David Kemp.

He also showed there were no hard feelings when he warmly shook hands and exchanged smiles with his former son-in-law and party powerbroker Michael Kroger.

It has been 16 years since Mr Peacock, 71, who lives in Texas with his American wife, was last on the scene but he feels that the Liberal Party, with Mr Abbott steering it, can win this month's federal election.

"Tony Abbott is campaigning very well. You have chased him each day and haven't been able to penetrate and he's got a blueprint and a schedule for Australia that people are coming increasingly to respect," he said.

"The two-fold process of government losing support and the opposition gaining is occurring right before us.

"I'm extremely confident we are going to see a Liberal/National government after the next election."

Mr Peacock recalled the advice he received from the Liberal Party's founding father, the longest serving prime minister and former member for Kooyong, Sir Robert Menzies, who wanted to peruse the draft of his maiden speech in Parliament.

"He said: 'The English is fine, as I'd expect, but I would cut it in half if I was you - and it wouldn't matter which half,'" Mr Peacock said.

"He's not around to eye your draft, but I'd like to talk to you about it when it comes around," he told Mr Frydenberg.

Unlike former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser, Mr Peacock has kept up his membership of the party.

"I am a committed Liberal. I joined the party when I was 16. I believe strongly in its principles and believe Tony Abbott is doing a good job," he said.