A Liberal candidate in the upcoming South Australian state election has accused locals of racism for saying he shouldn’t be allowed to run because he was born in India.
Sunny Singh moved to Australia with his wife in 2008, worked as a taxi driver but now runs his own cab company in Port Augusta, served as a councillor since 2018, and is now running for the sprawling seat of Giles in March 21 election.
But Mr Singh said social media users were arguing he has no right to stand for office because he was born overseas, and told The Advertiser the online commentary was “disgusting”, and “extremely distressing, especially for my wife and children”.
One commenter asked “Why is Sunny in Australian politics?” while another said “If you’re not born and bred in Australia you should have no right to stand for any form of politics. Australia for Australians”, and a third wrote “I can’t understand how these money grubbing imports even get into politics”.
“While I have put myself forward for public office, no one deserves to be the target of such vile attacks,” Mr Singh said.
“This will not stop me from fighting for my community and doing what is best for the people of Giles. I still wish best for all those people because I don’t believe in hate.”
In 2023 Mr Singh spoke out after the council commissioned a large mural showing a Sikh family, and said he specifically wanted it to depict a child wearing a turban to help normalise the practice.
“As a man, we can tell people about our culture, but it’s really hard for children to explain themselves,” he said.
“We really wanted with a child with a small turban on their head so we can be seen in the community, so people can know about us, so the children don’t have any issues at school.”
Port Augusta City Council community development officer Brooke Mundy said: “The Indian community really wanted to have faces wearing their traditional headwear, so it becomes a normal part when the kids are going to school with headdress on, that they feel that they can do that and not be judged.”
“If there’s a permanent piece of art where people are seeing it regularly, it becomes normal.”
Header image: Left, Sunny Singh. Right, in front of the Port Augusta mural (Facebook).
