A Teal Independent volunteer has been reported to police after allegedly lashing out at Liberal volunteers for taking the best posters for their candidate.
The vicious dispute, which was caught on video, erupted after Liberal volunteers arrived early Thursday to seize the best spots to display corflutes for their candidate, Anthony Roberts, outside the Lane Cove Council Civic Centre, on Sydney’s exclusive north shore.
When Noel Plumb, a volunteer for independent candidate Victoria Davidson, arrived at 6:30am, he was furious to see the best spots gone.
He then allegedly threatened to take down Mr Roberts’ posters.
That’s when Liberal campaign worker, Ben Collins, started filming Mr. Plumb with his phone camera.
A Teal Independent volunteer has been reported to police for allegedly assaulting a Liberal counterpart as election tensions between rival campaign workers escalated
When Noel Plumb, a volunteer for independent candidate Victoria Davidson, arrived at 6.30am, he was furious to find the best spots plastered with material promoting Liberal Anthony Roberts.
One clip showed Mr. Plumb marching towards Mr. Collins’s camera shouting angrily, “Don’t you dare shoot me” before the screen went black.
Rory Burke, a colleague of Mr. Collins, claimed that the screen went black because Mr. Plumb picked up the phone.
Mr Plumb had urged Liberals to argue that the best places to display corflutes was not fair and he wanted some removed.
‘[Mr Plumb] demanded we remove the corflutes and said, ‘I’m going to rip them and you need physical force to stop me,'” Burke told Daily Mail Australia.
‘You cannot just act and demand that other parties remove their material, those are not the rules of the game. The rules are that the first people to get there can hang their posters wherever they want.
“If you don’t want to get up early and do the hard work, you won’t be rewarded.”
A second video clip showed Mr Plumb, formerly an environmentalist who has also volunteered for the Greens, continuing to argue with the Liberal volunteers.
‘You must be joking. You must be joking,’ he said.
“You’re actually over seven years old at this point.”
Mr. Plumb then turned to the camera and said ‘are you still photographing me?’
“Yes, you can, you’re in a public place,” Mr. Collins replied.
“Go on, take my phone again.”
Liberal volunteers Ben Collins and Rory Burke (wearing blue t-shirts) arrived outside the Lane Cove Council room early Thursday to hang Anthony Roberts’ posters in the best spots. Mr Collins (left) filmed rival volunteer Noel Plumb allegedly acting aggressively
Liberal candidate Anthony Roberts (foreground) stands in front of his army of campaign aides
Mr Plumb is a campaign clerk for Victoria Davidson independent candidate for Lane Cove. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Ms. Davidson
“Mate, you’d be the first to object and you know, you’re just a stupid man.”
Mr Burke said the atmosphere between the opposing party volunteers at the police stations is usually competitive but mostly fun.
“There’s a bit of chatter, but at the end of the day, we help each other pack,” he said.
But he labeled Mr. Plumb as “demanding, entitled and overly aggressive.”
NSW Police said in a statement they were investigating a report of “an alleged altercation” outside a community center in Lane Cove at 6.40am on Thursday.
There are no reports of injuries, police said.
“Investigations continue.”
A spokesperson for Victoria Davidson’s office confirmed in a statement that a “70-year-old” volunteer was involved in a dispute with two NSW Liberal Party representatives “over the fair allocation of space for election materials.”
Obviously the volunteer was Noel Plumb.
Mr. Plumb was said to be so upset by the interaction with the Liberal volunteers that he called the police.
“The campaign team have spoken to the volunteer and it has been agreed that he will no longer participate in Victoria’s campaign.”
Daily Mail Australia reached out to Noel Plumb for comment.
Mr Plumb made headlines in 2020 after his 12-year battle with a neighbor over a tree was revealed.
The suburban stoush of Anthony Saba and Noel Plumb began in 2008 in East Ryde, northwestern Sydney, over a tree in their backyard.
Mr Plumb made headlines in 2020 after his 12-year battle with a neighbor over a tree was revealed
Noel Plumb (pictured) hopes an incredible 12-year neighborhood dispute in Sydney’s suburbs comes to an end soon
Mr Plumb also made headlines in 2015 when he was denied entry to the NSW Parliament for wearing a T-shirt with a koala-friendly slogan on it as part of his environmental activism
Mr. Plumb – a retired shrub restorer – called on his congregation to help Mr. Saba, who was cutting down large gum trees in the backyard of his house.
Since then, Mr Saba, Mr Plumb and his now ex-wife Jeanette Minifie, and neighbor Stuart Maxwell have been involved in legal action before the NSW Local Court, District Court, Supreme Court and NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunals (NCAT).
The final act of the feud was heard before NCAT in March 2020, where the tribunal ruled that a fence initiated by Ms. Minifie between her and Mr. Maxwell’s house was illegal.
Mr Plumb claimed the battle had had a ‘huge impact’ and hoped it will soon be put to bed, while Mr Saba told Daily Mail Australia he intends to reclaim every penny of the $230,000 he owed by his neighborhood nemesis.
Mr Plumb also made headlines in 2015 when he was denied entry to the NSW Parliament for wearing a T-shirt with a koala-friendly slogan on it.
His black and white t-shirt featured a smiling koala on the front, below the words “Save our south coast koala.”
On the back were the words ‘save me, save my forest’.
“Nowadays I wear a koala T-shirt pretty constantly, because I’m a campaigner for it,” he said.
Mr Plumb intended to wear it for the launch of a conservation report in the NSW Parliament but was denied access.