Wollongong Liberal councillor Bede Crasnich has hit back at critics of his ‘‘salami’’ label for a fellow councillor.
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Cr Greg Petty, who was the subject of the salami slur, said it was ‘‘outrageous’’ to refer to a colleague in such terms.
Cr Crasnich had compared the independent Cr Petty to the cured pork product after Cr Petty was found to have breached his conflict of interest obligations over a council vote on the Helensburgh land rezoning issue.
As the ‘‘salamigate’’ issue grew on Wednesday, Cr Crasnich took to the Illawarra Mercury website, writing in the comments section that his barb was just an attempt to bring some colour to the debate.
‘‘Seriously, anyone thinking this is offensive, inappropriate or unacceptable for a councillor to say, needs to get a life,’’ he said.
‘‘There is a lot of mediocrity and boredom in politics, also little comments and digs at my background isn’t very nice.
‘‘I might be young, but at least I’m not a boring stick in the mud.’’ Earlier, Cr Crasnich had explained the term salami referred to ‘‘a piece of meat that just sits there’’ and that his father had called him a salami when he was young.
‘‘For those who don’t know, this is the salami who calls everyone else unethical,’’ Cr Crasnich had written on Twitter, linking to the Mercury’s story about the finding against Cr Petty.
Since then, Cr Crasnich has had to withstand some insults from other commentators that came close to the line of appropriate debate – one of them saying it ‘‘sounds like the sort of insult you would get from a goat farmer in a suit’’.
Cr Crasnich took this as a dig at his background, making it clear he was proud to be the child of a migrant and successful.
Cr Crasnich’s father grew up in Trieste, a coastal city in northern Italy, right on the border with Slovenia and near Croatia – all proud salami-making countries.
But Trieste, as it turns out, is better known for its smoked prosciutto, than it is for salami.
Mercury readers have not missed the opportunity for a joke. One commented that it was all ‘‘baloney’’, which of course relates to the famed mortadella-like sausage from the northern Italian city of Bologna.
Another declared this to be the ‘‘wurst’’ insult they had heard.