Ben Dawkins vows for office policy stickers to return after late-night vandal tore them down

One Nation South West MLC Ben Dawkins says his office has been hit by vandalism with three of his controversial policy stickers torn down over the weekend. The big red stop sign-shaped stickers were stuck to his Bunbury CBD office windows at the corner of Wellington and Victoria streets but were destroyed on Saturday night, according to Mr Dawkins. The controversial stickers included the phrases “pause immigration Aussies first”, “no mand-vax” and “stop wind farm”. Mr Dawkins said he was disappointed to see the signage destroyed, but has vowed to replace them — with some changes. “My reaction was, this is the world we live in,” he said. “People take offence especially to One Nation when One Nation tries to tell things as they are truthfully. “People interpret that as being racist sometimes, but there’s no mention of race in anything that I said or included on the signs, so this is just how it is.” Among the most controversial of the signs was the one relating to immigration. Mr Dawkins said he had not had any formal complaints about the signs but recalled an incident in August at an Indian restaurant when a man approached him and angrily asked why he was eating in an Indian restaurant if he didn’t like immigrants, referencing the sign. He said his immigration sign had been misinterpreted, but admitted he “should have phrased it better”. “With the immigration one, I haven’t decided if that one specifically will go back up but if it does, I’ll change the phrasing,” he said. “I think just putting the word Aussie in there is interpreted as sort of extreme nationalism, if you know what I mean, and so that one I probably didn’t think that one through 100 per cent, but aside from that I think it was perfectly reasonable.” Mr Dawkins said while he didn’t know the culprit yet, he had reported the incident to police. WA Police confirmed an online report had been made and no charges had been laid. “I’ll be doubling down,” he said. “My response from Bunbury people has been overwhelmingly positive, personally I’ve copped a bit of flack in my personal life from people but that’s very minimal.”