Three women have been caught on a home security camera in one of Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs vandalising an election poster by drawing a pig’s snout over MP Zali Steggall’s face.
The home security camera footage of the well-dressed trio also records the four-letter word moment when they realise they had used a Chanel brand lipstick to do it.
In the second MP election sign controversy this week, the women were recorded standing on the corner of a leafy street in Mosman, on Sydney’s lower north shore.
One of the women uses a lipstick to deface Ms Steggall’s poster on a home’s gate, drawing a snout and the word ‘pig’ over the Teal member for Warringah’s campaign placard.
Then, as they realise what brand they’ve used, one of the other women exclaims: ‘F***! It was Chanel.’
The other adds: ‘Oh I thought you ruined it. Oh was it a good one? Why’d you let me do that?’
The third woman then instructs the lipstick defacer: ‘Do piggy things on her nose.’
The wild scenes were caught on the CCTV footage at 12.16pm on Thursday outside a back gate on Cobbittee Street, Mosman.
In the video, first posted online by the Mosman Collective, the camera then focuses on their handiwork, showing Zali Steggall’s campaign poster with the slogan ‘Smart Solutions Positive Impact’.
The snout and the word ‘PIG’ in capitals are drawn in bright red.
Ms Steggall told the Mosman Collective that it was ‘really disappointing to see vandalism in our community’.
‘It shows disrespect for others’ property and goes against the values of respectful political discourse,’ she said.
The election poster of Steggall, a four time Olympic medallist skier who campaigns on addressing climate change and net zero emissions, is believed to have been on the gate of a local Mosman bushland conservationist.
She spoke out in the wake of the vandalism attack to call for some dignity during the election campaign.
‘I call on all members of our community to show respect for each other’s property and engage in respectful and constructive political dialogue,’ Steggall said.
The row comes after fellow Teal MP Dr Monique Ryan was embroiled in an election sign controversy when her husband Peter Jordan was filmed removing a campaign poster for rival candidate Amelia Hamer in the Melbourne electorate of Kooyong.
The Federal election date was announced on Friday as Saturday May 3 after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Governor General Sam Mostyn to dissolve Parliament and trigger the start of the campaign.