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Dickson Reps

A bit more of the story ...

I've been interested in democracy since I was a lad. Both sides of my family were politically active via their involvement in the union movement. However, I came to the conclusion early in life that neither the left nor the right of politics had all the answers and the best path was a balance of both. This approach was reinforced when I asked my father, who was a small business man, why he didn't take the opportunity to get more involved when he knew the people at the top. He said that if everybody looked after their families then society would look after itself. Since that time I have always voted Independent. And if there wasn't an independent I voted for the candidate who I believed was most likely to put the Will of the electorate first.

A question I'm asked regularly is why I ran for PUP in 2013? My answer was because my school friend Susie Douglas invited me to be a candidate for the United Australia Party ( as it was called before Palmer changed it to PUP ) She thought that I "took a balanced approach to policy debate". Before I said yes I asked Susie, "Can I represent what the voters of my electorate want even if it is not what Clive wants, or what the party wants?" And she said, "Yes, that is what Clive wants". During my time with PUP I maintained a consistent message to voters and to the party internally that it was a representative's duty to represent what the voters want. As history shows Clive didn't walk the talk of fixing what was not working in our democracy and in 2014 I left the party. Here is a link to the ABC 7:30 report where I went on the public record about why I left. And a recent appearance on the 7:30 report ( Video has expired - Transcript available ) talking about why Clive Palmer is unlikely to make a successful political comeback.