Campion takes a shot at election
A PROLIFIC Cairns Post letter writer who made global headlines when news broke of his daughter’s relationship with Barnaby Joyce has thrown his hat into the ring for the upcoming state election.
Tolga resident Peter Campion, who describes himself as “a realist, not a politician”, will appear on the ballot as an independent in the seat of Hill at the October 31 poll.
He will be up against incumbent Katter’s Australian Party MP Shane Knuth, Labor hopeful Michael Hodgkins and other nominees.
The former firefighter promises to be a very outspoken candidate.
“I’m an energy realist, a global warming sceptic, and a prodemocracy activist, but I am not, by nature or by trade, a politician,” Mr Campion said.
“I am, however, driven to improve our failing system of governance, which right now is under attack by those in executive government.”
Mr Campion made national news when he told Barnaby Joyce to “give himself an uppercut” after learning the former deputy prime minister was having a baby with his daughter Vikki Campion.
It even led to a segment on huge US program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
“For years I have dared to debate the sillier aspects of modern ideological ‘wrongology’ via the opinion pages of our region’s newspapers and I’ve often been accused of being an LNP stooge,” he said.
“But despite once briefly flirting with the LNP, I have no connection to that increasingly left-wing organisation.
“Political parties are now the problem and not the solution. They’ve had plenty of time to solve the issues they claim are our major problems, but they never do.
“Why? Incompetence or reluctance? It has to be one of those. It’s time to reclaim our representative democracy by voting the parties – all of them – out of office.”
Mr Campion said his core policy was to slash red and green tape to clear the way back to cheap energy and jobs.
“My slogan is: ‘Less government, less tax, get out of our wallets and get off our backs’. We need our elected representatives to actually represent our electorates in parliament, not to represent political parties controlled by shadowy background figures from the southeast corner of Queensland,” he said.