One Nation removes WA candidate after anti-gay remarks surface
Parminder Singh said gay people have a mental illness in a video, prompting party distancing and profile removal
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Camera IconBarnaby Joyce says a One Nation candidate's homophobic comments did not represent the party. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP
Photograph: PerthNow (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Parminder Singh, a former One Nation WA candidate, said in a video that gay people have a mental illness and opposed same-sex marriage.
- One Nation removed Singh’s profile from its website after the comments became public, as reported by ABC Australia and others.
- Barnaby Joyce, a One Nation MP, called the party 'one of the gayest in Australia' while distancing it from Singh’s remarks.
- LGBTQIA+ advocates condemned the comments as harmful, with Equality Australia calling them 'outdated and deeply offensive'.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 14 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 2 of the 16 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
68/100
Craft
95/100
Hype
30/100
16 sources · methodology
Missing from the right
Only 4 of the 14 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.
Parminder Singh, a former One Nation candidate for Western Australia’s upper house, said in a social media video that gay people have a mental illness. The comments were posted by Perth comedian Jasky Singh, who shared clips of the interview. In the video, Parminder Singh also claimed that same-sex relationships were an 'advertisement' to young people and that women who tried relationships with women would not 'go back' to men.
One Nation removed Singh’s candidate profile from its website after the video became public. ABC Australia reported that the profile was still visible when it first contacted the party but was taken down later. Barnaby Joyce, a federal One Nation MP, said the comments were 'highly offensive' and did not represent the party. Joyce told ABC TV that One Nation was 'one of the gayest parties in Australia' and had a 'large proportion of gay people'.
LGBTQIA+ groups condemned Singh’s remarks. Meaghan Holden, CEO of Living Proud Inc in WA, said the comments were 'inaccurate, harmful and inconsistent with decades of medical and psychological understanding'. Anna Brown, head of Equality Australia, called the remarks 'outdated and deeply offensive' and said they contributed to stigma and social exclusion.
What the coverage left out
None of the digests from the left-rated outlets mentioned Singh’s comments about transgender people, which were reported in full by ABC Australia. The right-rated digest from The West Australian did not mention the removal of Singh’s profile from One Nation’s website. PerthNow’s centre-rated report did not include reactions from LGBTQIA+ advocates.
Coverage settled. We checked this 14 times and stopped on 17 Aug 2026, 21:01. The figures above are what it finished at.
How other outlets pictured it
Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.
Barnaby Joyce says it was clear Mr Singh "hasn't been around farms". (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
ABC Australia — embedded from source
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
8 rated outlets
- All nine left-rated outlets reported that One Nation removed Parminder Singh, a former Western Australian candidate, from its website after his remarks describing gay people as having a mental illness. The ABC’s full report established that Singh made the comments in a social media video, where he also claimed same-sex relationships were an “advertisement” to young people and that animals were smarter than humans for not being gay.
- The ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, and Canberra Times led on One Nation leader Pauline Hanson distancing herself from Singh’s comments. OUTInPerth, QNews, and Star Observer emphasised the party’s removal of Singh’s profile and LGBTQIA+ advocates’ condemnation of the remarks. The ABC and Star Observer quoted Barnaby Joyce calling One Nation “one of the gayest parties in Australia” in response.
- Eight digests and the ABC’s report included reactions from LGBTQIA+ organisations. The ABC quoted Equality Australia’s Anna Brown calling the remarks “baseless and absurd” and Living Proud Inc’s Meaghan Holden describing them as harmful to mental health. None of the digests mentioned Singh’s claims about transgender people, which the ABC’s report detailed.
Centre
2 rated outlets
- PerthNow’s full report led on Barnaby Joyce’s remark that One Nation was 'one of the gayest parties in Australia'. It quoted Joyce directly, including his claim that the party had a 'large proportion of gay people' and that Singh’s comments were 'highly offensive'. The report also noted that Singh’s profile had been removed from the party’s website but did not include reactions from LGBTQIA+ groups.
Right
4 rated outlets
- The West Australian’s digest led on Joyce’s attempt to distance One Nation from Singh’s comments. It did not mention Singh’s specific remarks about gay people having a mental illness or the removal of his profile from the party’s website. The digest did not include reactions from LGBTQIA+ advocates or quotes from Singh’s video.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover One Nation removes WA candidate after anti-gay remarks surface?
- Of the 14 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 57% are rated left, 14% are rated centre, 29% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 16. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is One Nation removes WA candidate after anti-gay remarks surface left or right?
- Neither side dominates it. Of the 14 rated outlets on this story, 57% are rated left, 14% are rated centre, 29% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
- Is the coverage of One Nation removes WA candidate after anti-gay remarks surface biased?
- One Nation removes WA candidate after anti-gay remarks surface is one event reported by 16 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting One Nation removes WA candidate after anti-gay remarks surface?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered One Nation removes WA candidate after anti-gay remarks surface?
- 16 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- What did Parminder Singh say about gay people?
- Singh said in a video that gay people have a mental illness and claimed same-sex relationships were an 'advertisement' to young people. He also said women who tried relationships with women would not 'go back' to men. The comments were widely condemned by LGBTQIA+ advocates as harmful and baseless.
- How did One Nation respond to Singh’s comments?
- One Nation removed Singh’s candidate profile from its website after the comments became public. Barnaby Joyce, a One Nation MP, called the party 'one of the gayest in Australia' while distancing it from Singh’s remarks, which he described as 'highly offensive'.
- Which outlets reported reactions from LGBTQIA+ groups?
- ABC Australia and OUTInPerth reported reactions from LGBTQIA+ advocates. Meaghan Holden of Living Proud Inc called the comments 'inaccurate and harmful', while Anna Brown of Equality Australia described them as 'outdated and deeply offensive'. PerthNow and The West Australian did not include these reactions.
Read it at the source
17 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
9- Pauline Hanson comes under fire over failed candidate's podcast comments (opens Brisbane Times in a new tab)
Brisbane Times — is Brisbane Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Pauline Hanson comes under fire over failed candidate's podcast comments (opens Sydney Morning Herald in a new tab)
Sydney Morning Herald — is Sydney Morning Herald biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Pauline Hanson comes under fire over failed candidate's podcast comments (opens The Age in a new tab)
- One Nation Scrambling After Ex-Candidate Calls Gay People Mentally Ill (opens Star Observer in a new tab)
Star Observer — is Star Observer biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Barnaby Joyce reckons One Nation is ‘one of the gayest parties in Australia’ (opens QNews in a new tab)
- One Nation identity Parminder Singh says gay people have a mental illness (opens OUTInPerth in a new tab)
OUTInPerth — is OUTInPerth biased? Our profile of this outlet
- One Nation 'one of the gayest' political parties: Joyce (opens The Canberra Times in a new tab)
The Canberra Times — is The Canberra Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- One Nation removes WA candidate from website after bizarre anti-gay interview (opens QNews in a new tab)
QNews
Centre
2Right
4- Joyce labels One Nation 'one of the gayest' political parties (opens 7NEWS Australia in a new tab)
7NEWS Australia — is 7NEWS Australia biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Hanson breaks silence on gay slur (opens News in a new tab)
- One Nation 'one of the gayest' political parties: Joyce (opens The West Australian in a new tab)
The West Australian — is The West Australian biased? Our profile of this outlet
- LIVE news updates: Labor referred to NACC over gambling sector influence; One Nation’s monoculture vision not a serious policy, says Andrew Bragg (opens Australian Financial Review in a new tab)
Australian Financial Review — is Australian Financial Review biased? Our profile of this outlet
Not rated
2How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
