Ex- Hanson hopeful joins Burston team
FORMER One Nation candidate for Burdekin, union president and exprison officer Belinda Johnson has joined the office of new United Australia Party Senator Brian Burston.
Embattled businessman Clive Palmer relaunched his Palmer United Party as the United Australia Party earlier this month and announced it would contest the next federal election.
Former One Nation Senator Brian Burston sensationally defected from the Pauline Hanson- led party to the United Australia Party last week, giving Mr Palmer an immediate voice in Parliament via the New South Wales senator.
Ms Johnson, who contested the seat of Burdekin in 2015 for One Nation, has shifted across to Senator Burston’s office and she told the Townsville Bulletin she intended to remain a strong voice for North Queensland in her new role.
She said she jumped ship because she didn’t think Senator Burston had been “reaching his full potential as a senator for One Nation”.
Ms Johnson said as a senator, Mr Burston could “help the whole of Australia” and she was “never ever” going to turn her back on the Burdekin.
She said she was yet to finalise her living arrangements and was weighing up with her family whether she would shift south.
Ms Johnson said she was hoping to help any organisation that needed to get a foot in the door in her new role with Senator Burston, to put their issues on the national agenda.
She said the new United Australia Party would listen to what was hap- pening and aim to deliver what was best for the people of Queensland.
Ms Johnson spent 15 years as a prison officer before she was sacked over allegations she’d used prison resources for political and union dealings. She appealed against her sacking and said she’d enjoyed significant support at the time as she fought against her dismissal.
Ms Johnson was investigated and cleared by the Crime and Misconduct Commission in the same corruption probe which also cleared former Ayr policeman Senior Sergeant Mick Isles of any wrongdoing.
Sen- Sgt Isles went missing in 2009, following his CMC clearance, and is presumed dead after a 2012 coronial inquest found he most likely took his own life.