Greens leader urges any lawyers keen to help sue LNP over ‘scratchies’ to get in touch

Greens lord mayoral aspirant Jonathan Sriranganathan has urged any lawyers who might like to help him sue the LNP to “get in touch” after the party distributed scratch-it flyers featuring his face.

One version of the LNP scratchie – placed in mailboxes, including those in Central Ward – asks people to “scratch and lose” in the Greens lottery.

“Labor lottery” and “Greens lottery” scratchies distributed to Brisbane mailboxes ahead of Saturday’s council election.

Scratching the panels reveals “unlucky symbols”, including higher taxes, a 30km/h speed limit, higher pet registration costs, cancelled Metro projects, and traffic chaos.

The Greens came second behind the LNP in Central Ward at the 2020 Brisbane City Council election, with a swing of 4.7 per cent.

A different flyer targeting Labor and appearing in areas including the very marginal LNP ward of Northgate reveals the same words under each panel.

But most of those panels also feature Sriranganathan’s face, with Labor lord mayoral candidate Tracey Price appearing just once as an “unlucky symbol”.

The LNP has been campaigning since August on the argument that people should not vote for a “Greens/Labor coalition of chaos”.

In response, Sriranganathan said anyone who had read the Greens’ policies would immediately see “90 per cent of these are bare-faced lies”.

“And the other 10 per cent are also lies.

“In one sense, this is a huge compliment because it shows how nervous the LNP are about losing seats to the Greens, but some of the lies they’re spreading about me are so sensationalist and inflammatory, I’m a little worried about my personal safety.

“The only one that’s half accurate is the suggestion we would cut road funding, but the truth is, we want to redirect funding that’s currently spent widening roads towards installing more pedestrian crossings and bike lanes.

“We aren’t proposing any changes in funding for road maintenance and repairs.

“If any lawyers out there would like to help me sue the LNP for defamation, please get in touch.”

Queensland Labor released their own version on Facebook, arguing a vote for Labor would result in funding to fight congestion, half-price bus fares, more mosquito spraying, and new housing.

LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s media team was contacted for comment.

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