‘Renee is not her family’: Guy defends new Liberal candidate – The Age
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has defended his newest candidate for a safe upper house seat as a professional woman who should be judged on her own views and not her father’s connections to a conservative church accused of historic links to gay conversion practices.
Renee Heath is a Gippsland chiropractor who narrowly beat Cathrine Burnett-Wake to the No.1 spot on the Liberal Party ticket for the Eastern Victorian Region on Sunday, winning 55 votes to 53.
Burnett-Wake has been in parliament since December when she replaced Edward O’Donohue. In the lead-up to that preselection, several Liberal officials raised concerns about Heath’s family connection to the conservative City Builders Church, which has been accused of encouraging members of its congregation to take part in the Living Waters Program, an externally run gay conversion therapy that has since closed.
“Renee is not her father, Renee is not her uncle, Renee is not her family, Renee is herself,” Guy said. “She’s a professional woman, she’s in the health field, she’s a professional person. I’ll ask people to judge Renee by Renee and not by anyone else.”
Liberal sources have said Heath, whose background is in science, does not support gay conversion therapy and did not pitch herself as a candidate attempting to wind back the Coalition’s progressive agenda on improving gay rights.
Heath declined to comment, citing Liberal Party rules.
Guy has been pushing to present a more progressive face at November’s state election, including announcing plans to legislate a 2030 target to halve emissions and reach net zero by 2050. His equality spokesman, James Newbury, has also given an “iron-clad guarantee” not to amend laws banning gay conversion therapy that make it illegal to try to suppress or change an LGBTQ person’s gender or sexuality, including through faith.
Matthew Guy has defended Renee Heath as a “professional woman in the health field” who should not be judged based on her father’s church.Credit:Joe Armao
Guy has been under pressure in the past week after the party preselected an anti-abortion candidate to replace conservative MP Bernie Finn in the top position for the Western Metropolitan Region.