General News
16 October, 2024
Cloncurry chef gives One Nation a name on the ballot paper
Peter Rawle has defied One Nation's wishes and spoken to this masthead.
One Nation’s candidate for Traeger Peter Rawle never thought signing up for email alerts for a political party would lead to a random offer to run as a candidate.
After all, he isn’t even a One Nation party member.
But despite understanding he is a “paper candidate” and has no campaign support whatsoever, the Cloncurry chef believes the experience will provide valuable insight into the political process.
When North West Weekly phoned the Brisbane headquarters of both One Nation and The Greens to request information on their Traeger candidates, this masthead was told there would be no interviews, no public appearances, no photos would be provided and all requests for information had to be submitted in writing.
At the time of print, it was unclear whether One Nation and The Greens will even place corflutes of the candidates at voting booths.
Little is known about Traeger’s Greens candidate Louise Raynaud, other than she is based in Brisbane and likely works as a veterinarian, based on a Google search.
A Queensland Greens spokesperson declined to provide any further information about her work or educational background, connection to the North West or even her age.
Yet, despite the best efforts of One Nation headquarters to make its Traeger candidate unavailable, North West Weekly was able to track him down.
Mr Rawle – who lives and works in the North West - also spoke candidly about the process of becoming a paper candidate.
The Cloncurry chef told North West Weekly that he was contacted by One Nation state campaign manager Damien Huxham about a fortnight ago, asking if he would consider running for Pauline Hanson’s party in the Traeger election.
Mr Rawle said he had never spoken to Mr Huxham before and was surprised to be asked to run because he had only previously subscribed to email news alerts from One Nation and was not a party member.
“One of the first things I was told was that it would not cost me any money to run,” he told North West Weekly.
“There is a lot of paperwork involved in running – they (One Nation party workers) do it for you, but you have to sign a lot of things.
“I am fully aware of the situation – I still have a lot to learn about politics, but this (running for One Nation) will help me if I ever want to get more involved in politics in the future.
“If I can do anything to help stop votes going to Labor or the Greens then I will support it.”
READ ALSO: No photos, no interview: Traeger voters cop two paper candidates