With the new electoral boundaries firmly in place in the seat of Condamine, the sitting LNP member Pat Weir, said the forthcoming State election is a “whole new ball game”.
In the re-distribution, the Condamine electorate has lost of town of Dalby, and added the towns of Crows Nest, Quinalow and Meringandan.
This election is a whole new ball game with the redistribution of the seat of Condamine
- Pat Weir
And while candidates such as Frank Ashman, who is standing for Pauline Hanson's One Nation party, and the Australia Labor Party candidate Brendon Huybregts (who also was the ALP candidate in 2015) entered the campaign when nominations closed, Mr Weir said that One Nation in particular, was clearly visible.
Other candidates standing are Chris Turnbull representing The Greens, while John Hill is the face for the Katter's Australian Party.
Mr Weir held the seat of Condamine by a 16 percent margin in the 2015 election, and he isn’t taking any votes for granted.
He said he is concentrating on campaigning on issues such as the cost of living, particularly electricity, Royalities to Regions, and the introduction in 2014 by the LNP of the Agricultural Energy and Water Council.
In 2014, the LNP established the Agriculture Energy Council under a Memorandum of Understanding between the State of Queensland represented through the Agriculture Minister and Minister for Energy and Water, Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) and AgForce.
The purpose of the Council was to improve collaboration between QFF and its members, AgForce, Ergon and the Queensland Government in considering energy-related issues for the agriculture industry. The program was then expanded to target all intensive energy users in the agriculture sector, not just irrigators, known as the Energy Saver Plus program.
Mr Weir said he was staying ‘at arms length’ of issues such as where the proposed inland rail route should cross the Condamine floodplain.
“I am not going to promise on something I have no power to deliver, such as the inland rail corridor, as is a Federal issue.” Mr Weir said.
Pauline Hansen’s One Nation candidate Frank Ashman is a beef producer from Bymaroo. He has a strong belief that the Darling Downs is a precious agricultural producing region and should be free of intrusions similar to open-cut coal mining and coal seam gas extraction.
Mr Ashman has been a One Nation supporter from the past 25 years.
“I admire Pauline who has the tenacity to speak her mind and I am honoured to be on her team,” Mr Ashman said.
“I am feeling confident with the positive feedback from constituents who feel that the larger parties are letting them down.
“Obviously the issues are the cost of living and electricity.
“Our One Nation’s policy believes there should be highly efficient clean coal fired power stations built in northern Australia owned by the people, in order to reduce electricity costs and distribution.”