VICTORIAN STATE ELECTION:

MELBOURNE: An angry and upset Catherine Cumming has hit back at “unfounded and defamatory slurs” that she wished someone in the army would shoot Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in the head.

The Upper House MP  has come under fire over online video showing her addressing an election rally at which she appeared to say she “joined the Angry Victorians Party to make Daniel Andrews turn into red mist. In the army we would call it pink mist  but I want him into red mist. I want … give it up …(unintelligentable) …anyone here in the army a job to blow someone up and they will.”

Ms Cumming went some way to defuse the anger directed her way, particularly on social media, when she faced the media later to say she had been terrible misrepresented.

“When I said I wanted Andrews turned into red mist, I was talking about Andrew’s, as in the head of Andrew Shepherd, the 42^nd and a half president of the United States who served briefly in 1995 between Bill Clinton’s two terms.

“Andrew Shepherd promised to go after the handguns and the assault weapons and he never did!

“My ‘red mist’ comment was a metaphor for my red-hot and bitter disappointment that has festered now for almost three decades over the fact that Andrew Shepherd promised so much in office and delivered so little.

“His failings as a leader were the main reason I entered politics with the hope of making a real difference and I think I’m doing that.

“Sadly, President Andrew Shepherd left us a long time ago so any suggestion that I could wish any harm on him at all, even if I wanted to, is clearly and patently absurd!”