The Northern Territory's police minister says he is ashamed about a series of racist, sexist and homophobic social media posts and insists they do not reflect his views.
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A new tranche of now-deleted posts from Brent Potter's Facebook account were released on Thursday, including one 2013 post containing a homophobic slur and another promoting toxic masculinity.
The posts also include misogynistic comments referring to women as "hoes" from 2014 and extremist reflections on youth offenders and immigrants.
"They were stupid, they were dickhead posts," he said at a press conference on Thursday.
"I'm absolutely ashamed and embarrassed and want to apologise to anyone I've hurt."
Mr Potter said he has grown a lot as a person since the posts and when asked if he was a feminist, he replied: "I have two daughters and my wife and I believe in the movement. In my 20s I was a single man with no responsibilities, and that's reflected in my comments."
A series of anti-semitic and racist posts were first revealed on Wednesday with Mr Potter initially claiming they were satirical and that he did not necessarily agree with the content.
The posts were condemned by the Australian Jewish community.
The former veteran said he continued to have the backing of his Labor colleagues, despite several reshared posts from 2019 mocking federal Labor and former Victorian premier Dan Andrews.
Chief Minister Eva Lawler stood by Mr Potter, saying "people learn from their mistakes".
"There's no doubt that the way Brent Potter used social media was stupid and insensitive - to be blunt. He was an idiot," she said on Thursday.
"However, the Brent Potter I know is a hard-working minister."
NT Police Association president Nathan Finn called for the minister to step down.
"Yesterday afternoon, I spoke with Mr Potter and expressed the NTPA's deep disappointment in the disclosures, as well as the absence of a sincere apology from him," he said.
"I also informed Mr Potter it is difficult to see how he can continue in the role of police minister."
The revelations are the latest in a series of scandals surrounding NT Police, after explosive evidence in an Alice Springs inquest where it was alleged the police elite specialist unit handed out a racist award at Christmas parties.
NT Police is conducting an internal investigation with ICAC after former constable Zachary Rolfe produced certificates aiming to prove the existence of the award.
Senior officers have refuted racist claims but agreed an award was handed out for "an outstanding lack of excellence in the area of personal hygiene or feral behaviour".
Recipients were gifted a wooden club embedded with nails which was allegedly seized from a remote Indigenous community during a period of unrest.
Commissioner Michael Murphy said the award has been discontinued.
Commissioner Murphy admitted the award was racist, whether the certificates were verified or not, but said NT Police does not have a systemic racism problem.
"We do have pockets of people who continue to use language or behave in a (racist) way but it's addressed quickly and it's not wide-reaching," he said.
Australian Associated Press
