Liberal Party Drops Candidate Over Comments Opposing Women in Combat Roles

Former serviceman John Armfield has weighed in.

Soldiers from 1 RAR (Royal Australian Regiment) participate in a platoon live fire attack in Townsville, Australia, on Aug. 24, 2020. Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

A former serviceman now competing in the next federal election has spoken out after the Liberal Party replaced a candidate for saying women should not serve on the front line.

Benjamin Britton, who was running for the seat of Whitlam south of Sydney, was replaced with candidate Nathaniel Smith after comments he made about women in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) recently surfaced.

Britton, who described diversity quotas as woke and Marxist, said women needed to be removed from combat corps and that doing so would “fix” the military.

“Why would you want to send your beautiful women? Your females, the ones that are the backbone of your society,” Britton was quoted as saying.

“Your society only exists because of women. Why would you want to sacrifice them in war, on the altar?”

The Liberal Party of New South Wales issued a statement saying it hadn’t been aware of Britton’s earlier comments, and that he had been disendorsed because his beliefs did not align with party values.

The new candidate Smith, is the CEO of the Master Plumbers Association of New South Wales, and was the former state member for the seat of Wollondilly from 2019-2023.

He resides with his wife Christine and their two daughters in the Southern Highlands areas.

“As part of Peter Dutton’s Liberal team, Nathaniel will help deliver the Liberal plan to strengthen our economy and reduce inflation,” a party statement read.

Quality Over Gender

Former navy clearance diver and now-People First Party candidate John Armfield told The Epoch Times that merit should be the biggest consideration over gender.

Armfield, who is vying for the Gold Coast electorate of Fadden, said current standards were the main issue concerning the ADF.

Former navy clearance diver and now-candidate for the People First Party, John Armfield. Courtesy of John Armfield

“I have no concerns with females or males fighting and making the ultimate sacrifice,” he said.

“I do have concerns though with the current standards within the ADF for both male and females because I have personally observed and instructed over two decades and watched the officers degrade standards to meet the recruitment numbers.

“The problem with this, as the standards decrease, the responsibility of [work, health, and safety] management then falls to the senior enlisted being SGT-WO (sergeant warrant officer) managing the risk, this has led to a massive decline in mental health of supervisors and is one of the key drivers in the poor retention of personnel.”

Armfield said in the field of diving he had also seen students forced to continue training despite begging to leave.

“In summary, I will fight alongside anyone who meets the required standard for combat, male or female,” he said.

“I can honestly tell you from my last posting in 2019-2021 as an instructor, the standard is poor.”