General News
30 April, 2025
Independent pulling out all stops ahead of election
Steven Clare slept in a swag down a dirt road in order to save costs on his election campaign.
The second name on the Kennedy election ballot paper would not be familiar to most North West voters.
Steven Clare has spent most of his working life operating a small business and raising a family in Townsville.
He admits he only became interested in politics a decade ago.
Yet the only independent candidate for Kennedy running in this election has clocked up thousands of kilometres in his vehicle traversing the length and breadth of the region armed with 140 corflutes bearing his name and photo, 10,000 flyers listing his election promises, and his reliable swag.
With fuel and printing costs –plus a $2000 fee just to become a candidate – running a one-man campaign in an electorate that engulfs more than 30 per cent of the Queensland landmass is an expensive undertaking.
For a recently retired spray painter with a crook back, it is near impossible.
To save money, Mr Clare spent a week camping down a dirt track off Duchess Road after spending his days attempting to get the attention of Mount Isa voters.
This is in spite of the fact that he has admitted he is unlikely to win the coveted position on Saturday.
In fact, he has already begun filling out job applications to work as a supermarket trolley collector in Townsville, spurred on by the promise of a $27/hour casual rate.
But this everyman is hoping to send a clear message to his fellow Australians that anyone can have a go in our nation’s political process.
“The colours of my campaign are green and gold,” Mr Clare explained to North West Weekly.
“That’s because I don’t belong to any political party – my only allegiance is to Australia.”
Mr Clare could be seen wandering the streets of Mount Isa last week, sticking flyers under the windscreen wipers of any parked car in the CBD.
He admitted he was a bit overzealous at times and that some locals pointed out – with good humour – that their car had received the same flyer two or three times in the space of a day or two.
However, the candidate said others wanted to stop and have a chat. Some even offered to provide him with a free room for the night when they heard he was running his campaign from the back of his car.
“You can’t beat the hospitality of people in the bush,” he said.
However, Mr Clare said he turned down the offers, not wanting to be a burden.
The now-independent is no stranger to the infighting of small party politics.
He has run previously as a One Nation candidate and flirted with Senator Gerard Rennick’s People First Party.
He has also run a campaign as an independent in Townsville.
But he says he decided to try his luck in Kennedy because he believed the region needed more “regular Australians” to try to bring some common sense back to policy making.
Mr Clare said that if by chance he was elected on Saturday, the first matter would be – aside from picking himself off the ground from shock – to fix the Flinders Highway and push for federal assistance to construct CopperString.
He said until polling day, he planned to travel through the Gulf and across the Tablelands to be back in front of the television on Saturday night to watch the news alongside his teenage son.
“If you want something done, you’ve got to do it yourself,” he explained.
“So many people have told me that I’m wasting my time and that it’s too late to change anything.
“These are the same people who are then telling me that I am doing everything wrong in my campaign.
“There seem to be a lot of people who think they know how to run a perfect campaign but none of them are putting their hats into the ring.
“There are a lot of people who do a lot of talking – well, talk is cheap. You should be getting out there and having a go, and that’s what I am doing.
“I am not stupid – I know exactly who I am going up against and I know exactly what I am facing. But this is what I want to do, and I will see it out to the finish line.”
