Final candidate in Groom revealed
A FORMER Toowoomba science teacher who was stood down over his stance on the state’s vaccine mandate is the final candidate to be announced for the upcoming federal election.
Ryan Otto, who was involved in local anti-mandate protests and joined the Convoy to Canberra earlier this year, will represent the Australian Federation Party in Groom.
Mr Otto said he had only decided to run two days before nominations closed, but was drawn first on the ballot sheet during the random selection process on Friday.
The 25-year-old said while his policy platform would be created based on local polling of the community — an essential selling point by the party — he was supportive of environmentalism and animal rights and the national “freedom” movement.
“I’d been going to these protests and I met a good friend of mine from Warwick and he decided to support the Australian Federation Party,” he said.
“It’s never really been in Queensland but it’s put together a team across both the electorates here.
“I believe the AFP is running very much like the UAP and Pauline Hansons’ One Nation, alongside the Freedom movement, who are pushing back against the Coalition’s Covid-19 mandates.
“That’s a big part of it, but for me personally, environmentalism and animal welfare are key components of my platform.”
Mr Otto also expressed concerns about the Inland Rail and its impacts on “native flora and fauna”.
According to the AFP’s website, the party is fiercely against the vaccine mandates and what it calls Australia’s “top-down” political system.
The AFP also states it “opposes precepts that undermine individual responsibility and character development”, while also claiming the country’s existing representatives “behave like unaccountable Marxist dictatorships”.
The group advocates for a decentralised system, taking inspiration from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, where MPs vote on issues based on the views of their constituents and not with the party line.
It is the promise of direct democracy, delivered through open source technology, that attracted Mr Otto to the party.
“A big thing the AFP has going for them is they’re developing an app to allow for direct feedback and a more involved democratic process,” he said.
“The two-party system has a very static way of interacting with the public and the AFP’s ideas of uplifting that and making it more dynamic and interactive for the average person is great.”