A One Nation candidate running in the Queensland election has likened Covid-19 vaccination to the Holocaust in comments condemned by medical experts and a Jewish community leader.
Gary Williamson, a bricklayer who is running for the seat of Redlands, also told Guardian Australia he “just might” build a bridge from the state’s mainland to an island on which he is building what he calls “Falcon Castle”. He claimed to have evidence of a paedophile ring operating on that island.
Williamson made the comparison between Covid and the Holocaust on social media before becoming a candidate – but doubled down on this position on Tuesday.
“Hitler, forced people into gas chambers. Covid-19, had people lining up, which is worse..!?!” Williamson wrote on Facebook on 6 June, along with a computer generated image of a man shooting a basketball into a hoop.
One Nation would not comment on the posts when contacted on Tuesday.
Williamson later deleted the images, but confirmed he made the posts to Guardian Australia.
“I wasn’t a politician back then, I was a concerned Australian,” he said.
“[But] actually, if you want a comment, I believe 98% of Australia has got my back on this.”
Williamson was then asked if he stood by those comments.
“Well, I support One Nation’s look into the royal commission investigating the misleading information that was forwarded by the government,” he said. “Absolutely”.
Health experts and a Jewish community leader condemned the One Nation candidate’s comments as “supremely ignorant”, “appalling” and dangerous.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said such a comparison to the Holocaust might come across as “idle hyperbole”, but that it “dilutes the gravity of historical events and portrays ordinary Australians, including medical professionals, as mass killers”.
“People can express their views about the appropriateness of government measures during the pandemic but equating vaccines intended to save life with gas chambers in which millions were murdered with the cruelest and most barbaric intent is supremely ignorant,” he said.
Deakin epidemiology chair and distinguished professor, Catherine Bennett, said vaccine conspiracy theories cost lives and labelled Williamson’s post “appalling”.
Prof Bennett said misrepresentation of information and people “flagrantly making up these really inflammatory statements” had caused public confusion and contributed to a drop off in vaccination, especially among the young.
“A young life damaged or lost from a vaccine preventable disease is the consequence of this kind of activity,” she said.
Australian National University infectious diseases specialist, associate prof Sanjaya Senanayake, said comments like Williamson’s were “disappointing” but not surprising.
He said medical misinformation and disinformation was rife and being spread on social media – but that Covid vaccines “made the biggest difference” in the world being able to navigate its way through the pandemic.
“If it was 2024 and we didn’t have a Covid vaccine, at this point we would be looking at a completely different story.”
Conservative estimates made in a study by RMIT and Monash University found that in New South Wales alone, Covid-19 vaccines saved at least 17,760 lives over a two-year period during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks.
As of Tuesday morning, a series of anti-vaccination posts remained on Williamson’s Instagram – whose profile image carries the One Nation banner and bio includes a link to his bricklaying company.
One video, posted on 25 April 2022, shows a bong with a cone packed with a green substance, a heat gun, a packet of cigarettes, coffee grinder, can of coke and a coffee mug carrying his business logo.
“Ive just killed covid in less than 24 hours using a simple heat treatment,” it is captioned.
“Ok I’ve made the bong and I’ve set up me heat gun at a variable, nice heat and I’m just going to let that wash over me for about half hour or so,” a voice narrating the video says.
“I feel remarkably better already”.
In another post from 10 August 2020, Williamson complains of being “banned from Facebook” for 30 days because he was “sharing an effective treatment for covid-19”.
This wasn’t the only time the platform flagged his posts as being misleading. Williamson also accused the social media company of being a “pedophile protector” after a post purporting to out a paedophile ring operating in a local school was taken down.
Williamson said he stood by those claims.
In November 2021 Williamson falsely claimed online that Queen Elizabeth had suffered an “adverse life ending or permanent life disabling reaction to the poisonous Vaccine” but that this was being covered up by “fake news”.
“I bet you all by the end of the week it will be announced that the Queen of England has passed away from an adverse Vaccine Reaction,” he wrote.
The Queen died 10 months later at the age of 96. Her death certificate confirmed she died of “old age”.
The Labor held seat of Redlands covers bay-side suburbs south of Brisbane and several islands of Moreton Bay, including Coochiemudlo, Macleay, Lamb and Russell islands.
Williamson said he moved to Russell Island, which has a population of about 3,700 people and is separated from the mangroves and mudflats of the mainland by less than two kilometres at its nearest point, because of the Covid pandemic.
One Nation state election leader James Ashby was contacted Tuesday morning for comment. He requested questions be sent to the party’s media team which did not respond by deadline. No comment was received.
