NEW TEAM RUNNING FOR COUNCIL

SEPARATISTS UNITE FOR TILT AT CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

A NEW team of Townsville City council contenders aligned with a North Queensland separatist outfit has emerged.

Helmed by mayoral candidate Chris Eastaughffe, the Townsville North Queensland State Alliance council team is a mixed bag of six other hopefuls ranging from an archaeologist who once ran for Clive Palmer’s party in the state election to a swim teacher and a world-record holding powerlifter.

The NQSA, which as an organisation ultimately wants a state referendum into whether it would be feasible and desirable to turn North Queensland into a separate state, is also running a team in Cairns, headed by former United Australia Party candidate Jen Sackley.

Townsville-based constitutional lawyer Peter Raffles, president of the

NQSA, said the purpose of running a team was to install local councils in the North who were ready and capable for a campaign to split from the south, although the Townsville NQSA council team itself would not be using that as an election platform.

The alliance argues a separate North Queensland state would be better off economically, provide growth and opportunity and decentralisation that allows for better local decisions which is the ethos that the Townsville council team will lean on, according to Mr Eastaughffe.

“(It’s) about retaining the wealth in North Queensland and to keep it circulating locally … about getting the works, getting the contracts, to actual local businesses,” he said.

The team’s candidates include Brigot Pugh (Div 1), a hairdresser and professional powerlifter; Alan Sheret (Div 3); Damon Johnstone (Div 6), a James Cook University photography major and single father of two; swim coach Chris Hanson (Div 8), who was shunted by the sudden closure of the Castle Hill PCYC; archaeologist Jacinta Warland (Div 9) who ran for the seat of Burdekin for the United Australia Party in 2015; and grazier Fran O’callaghan (Div 10), who with her husband Peter Bucknell last year sued Townsville City Council for failing to control noxious weeds that were spreading on to their grazing land.

Mr Eastaughffe, a private investigator by trade, said the team had popped up in the race with just a month to go due to funding issues.

“None of us are rich, no rich benefactors, this is a skin of our teeth grassroots thing,” he said. Townsville NQSA officially launches today.