Chief Minister Eva Lawler pulled a stunt “straight out of the Nazi playbook” when she personally attacked an ADF veteran for calling on Veterans’ Affairs Minister Brent Potter to resign over claims that his hateful social media posts were the product of his ADF experience, the veteran says.

Mick Caldwell, who is also a former Darwin RSL vice president and former director of security at Parliament House, was the first veteran to put his name on the record while criticising Mr Potter for claiming that his racist, homophobic, misogynistic and anti-Semitic Facebook posts were the result of his service in the Australian Defence Force.

Mr Caldwell called for Mr Potter’s resignation in a letter to Mr Potter last week, stating that he had failed in his duty to the ADF by blaming them for his posts and that he had lied to residents of Fannie Bay ahead of the by-election by using his military “experience to gain office”. Mr Caldwell also called for “strong consequences” for Mr Potter “to send a demonstration to others who use ‘culture’ as an excuse”.

However, in an extraordinary scene in Parliament last Tuesday, Ms Lawler attacked the private citizen personally, telling Parliament that Mr Caldwell should “not throw rocks”, while offering vague allegations against other parliamentarians.

“I do remember Mick Caldwell when he worked here as security a number of years ago,” Ms Lawler told Parliament.

“And I don’t know if Mick Caldwell should throw rocks at other people either, he’s probably another one that probably could have a good look at some of the things that are on his Facebook page as well.”

Mr Caldwell has strongly refuted the implication that he has, or had, racist, misogynistic, homophobic or anti-Semitic comments on his Facebook page and wrote a letter to the Chief Minister last week demanding a public apology.

“Whilst defending the indefensible, [the Chief Minister] chose a play straight out of the Nazi playbook – shoot the messenger,” Mr Caldwell told the NT Independent.

“She attacked me personally because I was completely and utterly outraged by the Minister of Veterans Affairs blaming his time in the Army and using it as an excuse for his extreme right wing, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynistic and anti-Labor views.

“I am not a politician and am not a Minister of the Crown. I am not protected by Parliamentary Privilege, as these cowards are.

“In my opinion, Mr Potter was never suitable to be a member of the Labor Party let alone a Minister in the Labor Government and the Labor Party knew it.”

Mr Caldwell said he had asked Ms Lawler to provide proof of her claims that his Facebook page contained inappropriate material, but she did not respond.

He also said Ms Lawler’s claims that there were “very few people … in this Parliament or elsewhere in the Northern Territory who can honestly say that they have never said anything racist”, was another cop out from addressing the nature of Mr Potter’s hateful social media material.

“Another play straight out of the Nazi book – downplay the damage done and normalise the behaviour by saying it’s ok because apart from a few people all Territorians are racist,” Mr Caldwell said. “The Minister was ‘just doing what everyone else does’. According to the Chief Minister, Mr Potter is a victim of society, and we should understand his offensive and harmful behaviour because we have all done it.

“Sorry Chief Minister, but you are wrong. Apart from a few, it is my experience that Territory people are not racists.”

Potter’s ‘apology’ changed in the days following revelations of posts

Ms Lawler has defended Mr Potter repeatedly over the last two weeks, saying that while he was an “idiot”, the posts were made between 10 and five years ago. However, Mr Caldwell and other veterans the NT Independent spoke with said they were also concerned with Mr Potter’s comments earlier this month that the hateful posts were the result of him serving in the ADF.

Ms Lawler did not address that question last week, cutting a press conference short when asked.

The NT Independent asked Ms Lawler’s office yesterday why she attacked a private citizen in Parliament and if she could produce or describe any inappropriate social media posts by Mr Caldwell to back up her claims. She did not provide any evidence but appeared to double down on the accusation.

“I responded to a question posed to me in the house by the CLP,” Ms Lawler said in a brief email. “As we have said, some people do have a social media footprint. Brent Potter has apologised.”

Mr Potter refined his public apology late last week to now include that he in “no way intended to blame the Defence Force for my personal actions”.

It was revealed last week that Mr Potter attempted to deny that a Nazi general he quoted on Facebook was a Nazi general and used government resources to send Nazi misinformation to journalists through the Chief Minister’s Office. Ms Lawler said that came from Mr Potter who was later forced to admit that Erwin Rommel was a Nazi, but claimed the previous denial and false information was an “editing error” in a press statement.

The Australian Defence Force has been repeatedly contacted for comment but has refused to respond to Mr Potter’s claims that the social media posts he shared between 2013 and 2019 were acceptable by ADF standards, with the implication that the ADF fostered a culture of hateful beliefs amongst members.