Irritated voters have told Opposition leader Sussan Ley to “stop grovelling” after she turned up at a Hindu festival in western Sydney and had a dot painted on her forehead.
The Liberal leader was joined by a host of pro-mass immigration uniparty politicians, including NSW Premier Chris Minns, federal Liberal MPs Julian Leeser and David Sharma, Labor MP Andrew Charlton, and her immigration spokesperson Paul Scarr at the Hindu Council of Australia’s Festival of Lights in Blacktown on Sunday.
Ms Ley, has been desperately trying to win over Indian voters – 85% of whom voted Labor at the last election – since Liberal senator Jacinta Price last month spoke out about widespread concerns that Labor was trying to import voters by bringing in record numbers of immigrants from India.
At the festival she wore an orange scarf with the logo of the Hindu group, which is demanding a special envoy to fight “hinduphobia” but is being sued for alleged “islamophobia” by a Muslim group, and had the red dot painted on her face on stage along with the other guest MPs.
“Australia is well and truly stronger because of the contributions of Indian Australians, and as the lights of Diwali shine across our suburbs and cities, may they fill your homes with joy, your hearts with hope, and your lives with peace and prosperity,” she said in a speech where she repeatedly emphasised that she was an immigrant to Australia herself and said she had a grandson of Indian heritage.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley gets a dot painted on her head at an Indian festival in western Sydney.
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Ms Ley also shared photos of herself at the event on Facebook and Instagram, but not on X where similar posts in the past have resulted in an avalanche of criticism.
But many Australians objected to the display and Ms Ley’s statements, with one simply writing “Stop grovelling” and another calling it “disgraceful”.
“Should look after your own before you pander for votes from immigrants, oh that’s right we know that both yours and Labor’s plan though. Anyway you’ll be gone soon enough and rightfully so,” said one woman.
“You are no better than Albo. You agree with everything he does. Why not join him and let others fix what you have broken,” said another female voter.
“Is Julian Leeser your handler? Blink twice to confirm,” joked an Aussie on Instagram.
“Are you intentionally trying to destroy your core support base?” asked another.
The appearance comes after Ms Ley and Mr Scarr abandoned the Coalition’s pre-election promises to cut immigration and pivoted to focus on trying to win over immigrant voting blocs instead, with the Queensland senator last week promising the party would run more Indian and non-White candidates in 2028.
Ms Price was dumped from the shadow ministry during the fallout over her comments, while WA Liberal MP Andrew Hastie quit his opposition frontbench role after saying his views on immigration were at odds with Ms Ley’s.
Header image: Left, right, Ms Ley at the festival (Facebook).
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