NIMMITABEL man and would-be politician, Andrew Thaler, has been called out by 2GB radio presenter Ben Fordham over Thaler’s claims he was a “spokesman” for the family of the elderly woman allegedly tasered by police in Cooma last week.
Following the event in which a now charged police officer is alleged to have used a Taser on 95-year-old Clare Nowland, a resident of the Yallambee Lodge aged-care facility, Thaler made numerous posts and live streams on social media.
He stated he was a “spokesman” on the basis he was acquainted with some family members.
Various media outlets including “The Guardian” and the “Daily Mail” interviewed and quoted Thaler in their reporting of the incident.
Fordham’s expose on Thursday morning came after an altercation between Thaler and members of Mrs Nowland’s family at the Cooma Hospital on the night she died.
In describing him as “a long-time failed political candidate” and “a rotten character”, Fordham stated that “this lunatic does not represent the Nowland family – he is a pest… and a parasite.”
In the livestream of the “highly distressing” incident, Thaler is heard to respond: “I’m not a nobody, I’m giving the world the news.”
The scrap metal and solar farm owner has a history of court appearances on a variety of charges including intimidation, and has run unsuccessfully for political office at all levels of government over a number of years, most recently, for Monaro in the NSW election.
Canberra radio presenter Stephen Cenatiempo had previously warned Thaler not to call into 2CC after Thaler posted derogatory and sexist remarks about then Minister for Women, Regional Health and Mental Health Bronnie Taylor and then member for Monaro Nichole Overall.
Mrs Taylor, now Shadow Minister for Regional Health and also a Nimmitabel resident, was interviewed on 2GB on continuing community concerns over Thaler’s behaviour.
“He has been absolutely offensive to myself over a number of years, to Nichole Overall who was the past member for Monaro. He’s a bully who’s been banned from things like Council meetings.”
“I can’t say on air the things that he has called me and my family and the language that he has used,” said Mrs Taylor.
“This is atrocious behaviour and when I saw him mentioned as a spokesperson, I rang the journalists at the different mastheads and I said have you checked this with the family? You need to check your sources.”
“What the family wanted was privacy and respect. And there he was in the car park and he’s had all this exposure. It’s wrong and we must call it out. And we mustn’t allow people like him to misrepresent themselves like this.”
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