City of Nedlands mayor Fiona Argyle slammed for ‘you will die’ social media post amid election campaign

Nedlands mayor Fiona Argyle has admitted she could have “provided better context” after a social media post with the ominous warning “you will die” and “shame on you” drew swift backlash from her election rivals. In a quickly deleted post on her argyle4nedlands Instagram account on Saturday morning, Ms Argyle — who is campaigning to hold onto the mayor chains — posted a screenshot of a message referring to a complaint about her election signage and social media posts. In the caption, Ms Argyle wrote: “To the dinosaurs, who complain about a good woman .... Please know your days are numbered”. This was followed by the hashtags “get a life”, “you will die”, “shame on you” and “you destroyed it for all of us”. It came after another controversy-sparking post from the account earlier in the week, which has also been deleted, which pictured Ms Argyle grinning from inside a giant dinosaur egg with the caption “It’s me versus the dinosaurs....again?!” and “Vote 1 Mayor Argyle”. Mayoral challengers Ben Hodsdon and Noel Youngman both slammed the post as “bullying”. Speaking during Tuesday night’s council meeting, Cr Hodsdon said he found the excuses given to him for the use of the hashtags, including that they were a reference to the fossil fuel industry, as “unbelievable”. “I will not stoop to behaviours I have seen occur in this campaign,” he said. “I have found it rather toxic and I found the excuses that have been used rather shallow. “Any victory that is obtained by personal attacks is no victory at all; in fact it is embarrassing. “The City of Nedlands has very high standards and I would suspect putting hashtags such as ‘get a life’, ‘you will die’ and ‘shame on you’ is terrible and threatening.” Cr Youngman also said he believed the post was inappropriate. “My main concern is Instagram is used by our younger residents and for adolescents to see our mayor using #youwilldie is not acceptable, especially when cyberbullying is such a major issue affecting our youth,” he said. “Her post began with ‘To the dinosaurs’ and only a couple of days earlier she’d posted a photo saying ‘It’s me versus the dinosaurs… again?! Vote 1 Argyle Mayor’. “So I do believe the post was directed at Cr Hodsdon and I.” Ms Argyle did not directly answer a series of questions from PerthNow, including whether the social media post was aimed at her rivals. But in a lengthy statement about the intentions behind her post, Ms Argyle told PerthNow it was “crafted during a moment of exasperation”. She took aim at her challengers’ stance on environmental initiatives implemented during her time on council, such as its State-first policy to protect trees on private land. “To date no member of the community has reached out to me directly to express concerns about my leadership style with the exception of my opposition in the upcoming mayoral election,” she said. “Continuing to look after our environment and community is of utmost importance to me. “From time to time I do get exasperated by the lack of interest in climate change and or the lack of demand for immediate action on climate change. “The (social media) references you cite were crafted during a moment of exasperation and complete disbelief that people think that somehow this is about greenwashing. “These references were simply a highly emotive way of attracting attention to the issue of climate change. “Could I have provided better context or better crafted my point? Of course, which is why the post has been deleted. “As we approach the mayoral election, It will be interesting to watch those so called ‘concerned members of the community’ change their policy positions on climate changes in order to win votes.”