Nick Shady, who stood as an independent candidate in last month's federal election, has received anonymous hate mail since the result was announced.
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Mr Shady, who gained a little more than two per cent of the first preference votes, picked the letter out of his post-box last night.
The fact you stood against the [Liberal] party is nothing short of treacherous!
Last night he tweeted: "Nice encouraging letter in the mail today" with a picture of the unsigned printed correspondence below.
It read:
"I once liked you but I was really disappointed you ran against the Liberals in Ballarat.
Catherine King is a tough enough competitor without you mudding [SIC] the waters.
The fact you stood against the party is nothing short of treacherous!
"You clearly have a much higher opinion of your abilities than others do. To get 2% of the vote shows you are not popular nor respected nor liked.
"So the bottom line is.... You got the result you deserved you opinionated, egotistical, turd!"
Regardless of whichever party you support, there should be no reason to belittle or bully people. To me this is what it is
- Nick Shady, independent candidate at the 2019 Federal Election
Mr Shady said he had been called worse, and confirmed that the letter, which he received yesterday (May 31) had no name nor return address. "I'd say they have been a politician by the tone of their insults," he said.
"The reason why I shared it was to call it out," he told The Courier. "There is no place for that. It's just not on. It's fortunate that I see the funny side of it, and it will make this person look more like a goose.
"That's the reason I shared it. I could have got home last night and cried and said 'no one likes me'. But [I want to] just call it and stop this bullying."
"Regardless of whichever party you support, there should be no reason to belittle or bully people. To me this is what it is."
Mr Shady, a farmer and mental health advocate, had stood for pre-selection for the Liberal Party for the 2016 federal election but was not selected to stand against Catherine King.
This year he elected to go it alone, saying: "I'm standing as an independent because I believe my policies are a blend of both [parties] and I don't want to be ringing someone at head office asking if I can say this or that."
He says the letter has not discouraged him and that he took heart from gaining more than 2,000 votes with very few resources.
He was placed as the last preference on the how-to-vote card for the Liberal Party candidate Timothy Vo, a decision which Mr Shady says shocked many local Liberal Party members.
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