Ultra-conservative MP Fred Nile has sparked a furious debate by declaring surviving men taken hostage in the Martin Place siege should not be given bravery awards.
“Usually men try to protect the women but it looks like the men were trying to protect their own skins,” he said on Channel 7‘s Sunrise program this morning.
“Where were the men? The only man really there was the man with the gun.”
The inflammatory comments by the NSW MP – who said bravery awards should go to those who put themselves in danger to help others, rather than those who found themselves in dangerous situations – have been condemned by Sydney MP Alex Greenwich who described them as “the cruelest blow” and called for his resignation.
They also fly in the face of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s proposal that the victims, surviving hostages and emergency workers be honored with bravery awards.
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Mr Nile, leader of the Christian Democrat party, has suggested surviving hostages who managed to escape during the Lindt Cafe siege could have done more by staying and protecting the women instead.
He does believe, however, that hostages Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson who were killed in the siege, along with gunman Man Haron Monis, should receive bravery awards.
Giving those who fled bravery medals would diminish the value of the award, Mr Nile claimed.
