Townsville bureau
The upcoming Hinchinbrook by-election date is yet to be called after sitting Katters Australian Party member Nick Dametto resigned this week to run for the position of Townsville mayor after the suspended mayor Troy Thompson resigned.
The LNP has chosen a candidate to contest the seat, Labor says it will run a candidate and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said she would find someone to challenge KAP.
mayor Mark Molachino is
the KAP candidate and was
born and bred in Ingham
Once a member of the RAAF and now KAP candidate Mark Molachino says he “has a lot of fire in his belly” and as KAP had a strong focus on the region and being the voice of Townsville in Brisbane, his experience as deputy mayor would greatly benefit the people of Hinchinbrook.
“What the KAP wants to do is future proof this region, from the Northern suburbs all the way to Ingham and surrounds.”
Hanson’s plan to find a candidate to run against KAP is a bitter-sweet memory for the people of Mirani electorate, south of Mackay, whose former MP Stephen Andrew lost the seat after One Nation at the state election ran a candidate against him for joining KAP, spitefully preferencing the Liberal Party.
The Liberal candidate took the seat. Stephen Andrew told Cairns News he joined KAP because of a lack of support from One Nation for the duration of his parliamentary term.
official James Ashby whom many believe to
be a closet Liberal Party supporter
Cairns News has asked One Nation which party it would preference should it run a candidate but has not received a reply.
The hard-hitting Dametto will be sorely missed in his electorate but says he wants to run for the mayoral position to secure Townsville’s economic future.
Unveiling his campaign, Mr Dametto said his election priorities were; reducing Townsville’s reliance on ratepayer revenue to fund major infrastructure, fixing the city’s maintenance backlog, securing state and federal funding to complete the Haughton Pipeline duplication and capitalising on Olympic-era investment.
“One of the first things people will ask is, what are you going to do about fiscal responsibility?” he said.
“You cannot continue to run a council off the ratepayer base — that’s one way to send yourself broke very quickly,” he said.
He would also move to redevelop The Strand to make it fit for tourism growth.
Hinchinbrook, runs along Queensland’s coastline from the Bohle River in Townsville to just south of Tully.