Wendy Francis = crazy person. The Twittertubes exploded last night, after Queensland Family First Senate candidate Wendy Francis made some rather inflammatory remarks about same sex marriage. As well as commenting that children in same sex partnerships was akin to “child abuse”, Francis said gay marriage would lead to a “parentless generation” and “uncontrollable depression and suicide”. Here is a screenshot posted at Pure Poison of some of her more controversial tweets:

wendyfrancis tweets

The comments, which also appeared in a statement on her website, have since been deleted. But as political parties have learnt in the past, Google cache never forgets. Francis stood by her tweets today, saying that she was not homophobic. – Tom Cowie

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Vote 1 Foodworks. There are some strange goings on in the seat of Dickson, where it appears a local supermarket has joined the race for the marginal seat (0.08% ALP). Foodworks has yet to release its campaign platform, however it will surely include a ‘turn back the trolleys’ policy for customers who enter the express checkout with more than eight items (boom, tish).

foodworks

Worst website ever? In these heady days of lavish multimedia experiences, it’s nice to know some politicians are happy to go back to basics when it comes to their online presence. No frills, no bells and zero whistles. Well, that’s how Victorian Senator Gavin Marshall sees it anyway. His official website contains one solitary page, featuring an 188-word biography. As Crikey reader Peter put it: “His web designers obviously didn’t charge by the word.”

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The great Bennelong bake-off. When news filtered through that Labor MP Maxine Mckew was holding a bake-off competition in Eastwood Mall on Saturday, Liberal candidate John Alexander must have rushed to get involved. Unfortunately, while the former tennis great was folding together his sponge, a prankster took the opportunity to load his table with a few plates of ‘children overboard surprise’ (just like frog in the pond, except with jelly babies). According to a Crikey reader who sent in the images, the fake desserts stayed on Alexander’s table for about three hours:

childrenoverboard

Coolest candiate ever. Here at Crikey we love candidates with cool names and they don’t come much cooler than Democrats candidate for Greenway Ronaldo Villaver. Even better, Villaver is a rolled-gold silver fox:

ronaldovillaver

According to a statement, Villaver believes in a “fairer Australia regardless of ethnicity, creed or religion”. Sound policy Ronaldo, but we reckon your moniker alone is going to win you a few extra votes.

Separated at birth. Thanks to Crikey reader Amy who spotted some remarkable similarities between former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin and ACT Senator Kate Lundy:

sarah-palin-1-sized