Federal election 2022: Meet the candidates for Capricornia

One candidate sees no future for her children, while another credits Robert Menzies’ ‘Forgotten Australians’ address as the fuel for her political fire. Find out what has pushed Capricornia’s candidates to compete for power.

Incumbent MP Michelle Landry will sit in second last position on the ballot paper for the 2022 Federal Election.

But despite that draw, she believes her “strong track record” will be more important in the battle for the seat of Capricornia.

The ballot order was revealed on Friday in Rockhampton and here’s how the nine candidates will line up on the voting paper:

1. Kylee Stanton. Ms Stanton is from Marion and is a member of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party.

2. Paula Ganfield. Ms Ganfield is from Rosslyn and is a member of the Informed Medical Options Party.

3. Mick Jones. Mr Jones is from Frenchville and is a member of the Greens Party.

4. Russell Robertson. Mr Robertson is from Moranbah and is a member of the Australian Labor Party.

5. Steve Murphy. Mr Murphy is from Yeppoon and is a member of the Liberal Democrats Party.

6. Ken Murray. Mr Murray is an Independent.

7. Nathan Luke Harding. Mr Harding is from Yeppoon and is a member of the United Australia Party.

Nathan Luke Harding from the United Australia party for Capricornia.

8. Michelle Landry. Ms Landry is from Taroomball and is a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland. She is the current Federal Member for Capricornia.

9. Zteven Whitty. Mr Whitty is from Cooee Bay and is a member of The Great Australian Party.

When asked about the ballot draw, Capricornia MP Michelle Landry said she placed more emphasis on her “strong track record”.

“I’m ready, as I always have been, to contest the seat of Capricornia for a fourth time and continue to deliver for the electorate I truly love,” Ms Landry said.

“I have a strong track record of delivering for Capricornia.

“Place your faith in me on election day and I will keep delivering the jobs, services and the infrastructure Central Queensland needs.”

Labor’s Russell Robertson said he hoped he had done enough to get over the line.

“It’s always nice to be number one but it’s going to be based around policy,” Mr Robertson said.

“So realistically it’s about the work that you’ve done in the lead up.”

Steve Murphy, of the Liberal Democrats Party, said he was just happy the ballot order was decided through a random process.

“I’m sure Kylee from One Nation is very pleased,” Mr Murphy said.

“It’ll depend on the voter really.

“I’m pleased.”

Capricornia contenders: Meet the people vying for your votes

Capricornia MP Michelle Landry has held the mammoth electorate for the Coalition since 2013.

In 2022, she will face a crowded pack of candidates looking to replace her.

The Labor Party, the United Australia Party, One Nation, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats have announced their candidates and some independents will likely put their hand up for the job over the coming days.

Capricornia is a marginal seat and your vote is powerful.

We will explore policies in detail over the coming weeks but to begin with, we’ve compiled a short introduction to each of the candidates and the beliefs and life-values that have pushed them into the political arena.

Michelle Landry – Liberal National Party

Ms Landry has represented the electorate for nearly 10 years and whether it’s a Sunday market in Yeppoon, the Hay Point coal hub south of Mackay or her electorate office in Rockhampton, she is often out and about meeting with her constituents.

Ms Landry is a member of the Nationals Party.

In her maiden speech to parliament in 2013, Ms Landry referenced Prime Minister Robert Menzies’ ‘Forgotten Australians’ address as a guiding light.

Capricornia MP Michelle Landry at Rookwood Weir. Picture: Contributed

“Menzies reflected on the contribution of middle-class Australians,” she said.

“He identified these people as the shopkeepers, farmers, skilled artisans, salary earners, professional men and women, the employers of our communities.

“He described them as the true backbone of the nation.

“I add to this list those who contribute to industrial, resource and economic production.

“These are all my constituents and it is to them that I make this pledge.

“I pledge to facilitate the ‘reawakening of Capricornia’ after a decade and a half of political dormancy.”

Ms Landry’s parents ran the Lucky Daniels Casket Agency in William Street in Rockhampton for 21 years and she credits her parents’ sacrifice and example for her own moral beliefs and political ideals.

“I recognise the vital contribution of small business owners – Menzies’ so-called forgotten Australians – who work day and night keeping their businesses operating,” she said towards the end of her speech.

“Having worked in banking and in my own small bookkeeping business, I fully appreciate your commitment.”

Russell Robertson – Labor

Mr Robertson is expected to be Ms Landry’s prime challenger and 2022 will be his second tilt at power after his unsuccessful campaign in 2019.

Mr Robertson was born in Clermont and is a third-generation coal miner.

“I’ve moved around Central Queensland my whole working life, before moving to Goonyella for a permanent coal job,” he said.

“Mum and Dad had a cattle and stockhorse breeding farm out at Ridgelands, just west of Rocky for two decades, before it had to be sold when my dad passed in 2019.

“I’m passionate about my community and ensuring everyone has a fair go.

“I’ve worked in hard, manual jobs and I believe in equality.

“I’m a working-class bloke and that’s the Labor Party at its core.

“We want our community to be better and I’ve seen that plunge over the past decade with the Morrison Government’s cronyism, lack of transparency and care.

“Central Queensland needs a fresh start, someone with new ideas and enthusiasm, who’s done a hard day’s work and represent those people in our region.”

When asked how voters could trust him to wield power responsibly, Mr Robertson said the Labor Party would establish a ‘Federal ICAC’ – an Independent Commission Against Corruption.

ICAC is a NSW government agency responsible for investigating corruption in the public service.

Mr Robertson has three children with his wife Denise.

“I want a secure future for them, their friends and all our youth,” he said.

“There’s so much instability in the world at the moment, I couldn’t imagine trying to find my place within it, a job, a home.

“The cost of living is just ridiculous and only getting worse and the Morrison Government has no plan for them.

“Only a Labor Government will bring a brighter future for our region.”

Kylee Stanton – One Nation

Mrs Stanton runs a mowing business and has five children.

She sees a bleak future for her children and this has propelled her entry into the field.

“With the current climate, the way everything is, I don’t see a future for them, so I’m doing this for my kids,” she said.

Mrs Stanton referenced vaccine mandates as a core complaint she hopes to address as an elected member of parliament.

“My eldest daughter is in Victoria, and she hasn’t had a choice,” she said.

“We shouldn’t be forced into taking experimental medical procedures if it’s something we don’t want to do.

“It’s probably why a lot of us have stood up and run.”

One Nation Capricornia candidate for the 2022 federal election Kylee Stanton (right) with One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson. Picture: Facebook

Mrs Stanton said she wanted to “see the science behind all that” when asked her views on whether getting vaccinated put third-parties at risk and placed hospitals under excessive pressure.

“I would actually like to see the science behind all that, because they won’t produce that,” she said.

“They keep telling us that, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

“And when the vaccinated can spread this and get just as sick as the unvaccinated, it seems pointless to me, to even put that argument forward.”

Mrs Stanton said the vaccine mandate issue had not been properly debated.

“There is a lot of science out there that is being suppressed,” she said.

“No one is allowed to question anything.”

Ms Stanton ran for the state seat of Whitsunday in 2015 and she has always been interested in politics.

“We feel like the major parties don’t listen anymore,” she said.

She lives in the Pioneer Valley.

Mrs Stanton said if elected, she would act as a conduit for popular opinion, rather than impose her own beliefs on the public.

“I don’t see that I get into a position of power as an elected representative,” she said.

“I’m no-one’s boss, they’re my boss.”

Nathan Harding – United Australia Party

Mr Harding is wired into Central Queensland through his wife Ruth, a Yeppoon woman.

Before declaring his candidacy, he worked as the engagement manager for the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton.

“I’ve had diverse experiences in my work across fields that have included pastoral care, corporate sales and disability care, working with drug and alcohol addicts, facilitating leadership workshop throughout Australia, community engagement throughout Queensland and advocating for the civil and religious liberties of people living in 70 of the most dangerous countries in the world,” he said.

Mr Harding’s Christian faith and his experiences overseas have informed his political vision.

“I had a formative experience standing on the border of Syria, Turkey and Iraq,” he said.

“I was meeting with locals who were experiencing discrimination based on the political situation, their religion and ethnicity.

“They described the experience of being segmented out from the rest of the population and having society and the government turn their back on them.

“I asked them how it got that way and their response was, ‘When it began to happen, no one spoke up, and by the time it had gone too far, it was too late’.

“Weeks later I sat with a friend and he asked me, ‘Nathan, did this trip make you more committed to helping people overseas?’

“I paused and considered that, then said, ‘No, it has made me more committed to my own country and to ensuring nothing like that ever happens here’.

“This explains my view of what a local representative of Capricornia should be.

“They should be a voice, advocate and defender of the rights of every member in their electorate.

“Critically, though, they must be a voice for the marginalised, for example when a small business, a worker in a mine or a conscientious objector to a vaccine gets their livelihood, business interests, or rights destroyed.

“The local member must then have the loudest voice in the electorate standing for those people in the highest parliament in our nation.”

Mr Harding said he moved into the UAP because he believed the major parties had abandoned the idea that human rights come from God rather than government.

“The principle that underpins the communist-style policies we’ve seen by the LNP and ALP governments these last two years is this: Government sits as God and government alone is the arbiter that bestows a right onto a human,” he said.

“This is a fundamentally flawed foundation for a free society and it is this dangerous idea that is currently driving governments and dictators to commit some of the worst human rights abuses in other parts of the world.

“Last year, the UAP campaign to reunite this country around the concept of freedom got my attention.”

He said the UAP was the only party willing to fight for Australians.

“In November 2021 I had a conversation with one of the most senior LNP members in our state parliament.

“I confronted him about the December 17 mandate announced by Palaszczuk government and you know what, he admitted that he thought the same as me … but that the LNP weren’t going to put anything out in opposition to the ALP’s announcement.

“I realised the LNP doesn’t have any fight in them for the Australian people.

“They will speak about their private convictions but they can’t be relied upon to stand up publicly for these same beliefs.

“That was the day that I nominated to become a candidate in the UAP.”

Mr Harding said his life experiences demonstrated he could be trusted with power.

“I have been offered and turned down many roles that other people have sought after because I knew they didn’t align with my values,” he said.

“I have spoken up for people in my workplace when I felt there was injustice and I have travelled across the globe to support people whose liberties were being eradicated in some of the most dangerous countries in the world.

“I don’t know of many candidates who have had the experiences and had their conviction tested in the ways that life has thrown at me, so I cannot say what the next member of Capricornia will do when they get to parliament.

“This is why I am running – I have had my convictions tested.

“Money has not been able to sway me to neglect prioritising my family.

“I can’t vouch for anyone else, but as a father I don’t trust anyone else with the future of my kids and I can commit to this electorate that I will not be deterred from standing for my boys’ interests expressed by the rest of this electorate.

“They can hold me to that.”

Mick Jones – The Greens

Mr Jones lives in Rockhampton and is running for Capricornia to represent those “doing it tough” across Central Queensland.

His passions flow from close experience with suffering.

From his late 20s until his mid 30s, Mr Jones suffered a series of health crises and went through a chain of surgeries.

At rock bottom, he weighed just 45kg.

“I owe my life to the nurses and doctors of Central Queensland, although I had to be shipped down to Brisbane to finally get access to a certain treatment that ended up being lifesaving for me,” he said.

Now in his 40s, he continues to suffer from brittle bones and a fractured spine, leftover damage from his illness.

He lives off a disability support pension but says he has been privileged compared to many in the electorate.

“I feel very strongly that the system is heavily underfunded, particularly out here in the regions,” he said.

“There’s a lot of people doing it tough in Central Queensland and that really motivates me to run and campaign, particularly for an improvement in essential services.”

Mr Jones studied psychology and statistics at university.

When asked whether he could be trusted with power, Mr Jones said he did not see politics as an aspiration and Greens party rules against taking cash donations from “big” corporations and billionaires would act as a safeguard against corruption.

“So it’s just as much about what the party around me does to stop me from being corrupted as it is anything about my background or circumstances,” he said.

Steve Murphy – Liberal Democrats

Mr Murphy was suspended from his position as a high school teacher in Yeppoon for refusing to get vaccinated.

In an interview in Mackay’s Queens Park alongside Liberal Democrats Senate Candidate Campbell Newman, Mr Murphy said he did not trust the vaccine or government messaging around them.

“I don’t think it has been tested enough,” he said.

“And I see a lot of mixed messages from different medical authorities on it.

“I see our government attempt to silence.

“I see a lot of silencing of opposing narratives and that automatically makes me distrust what is being told.”

He says he might have secured a medical exemption, but chose not to on a matter of principle.

“I didn’t do that because it was more the principle.

“I didn’t like the idea that the government could tell me what I can and can’t do with my body. I dug my heels in.”

Mr Murphy’s position is at odds with Queensland’s medical consensus, which has concluded the Covid vaccines are safe and effective.

Mr Murphy is not married and does not have children and he said this had encouraged him to “step forward” and buck the rules.

“Someone has to do something and I’ve got the least to lose, so I’ll step forward,” he said.

He says his libertarian beliefs have pushed him to the Liberal Democrats.

He said the party’s flat tax rate of 20 per cent would offer people certainty.

He also said he wants to reform Queensland’s education system to give more power to parents.