‘One Nation killed my political career’: Pavlou

Maverick UQ student Drew Pavlou says his ambition to run for Katter’s Australian Party has been sabotaged by One Nation.

Drew Pavlou claims his ambitions to run for a Senate seat for Katter’s Australian Party have been sabotaged by pressure on party officials from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

The maverick University of Queensland student had been in talks with the party’s founder, Bob Katter, about running in the Senate – which would have seen Mr Pavlou vying for Senator Hanson’s upper house spot - but KAP’s federal management committee voted against his candidacy.

Drew Pavlou back on campus at University of Queensland.

“Bob was right there with me until the very end but sadly it fell through because according to people on the selection panel, Pauline Hanson had her chief of staff, James Ashby, ring a number of the selectors and say that peace between the parties would no longer exist if they put me up as a candidate.”

Mr Ashby denied contacting KAP. “Who they choose for pre-selection is their call; we’ve never had any impact on who they choose, and vice versa.”

The KAP president, Chris Carney, said Mr Pavlou’s candidacy was rejected because the party’s focus was on north and regional Queensland and Mr Pavlou was Brisbane-based.

He did not respond to a question about whether KAP had been pressured by One Nation not to endorse Mr Pavlou.

Bob Katter and Drew Pavlou at a media conference Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Kapernick

Mr Pavlou said he still intended to run for the Senate and is gathering signatures to create his own party.

“I took on the Chinese Government so I’m not really scared of One Nation,” he said. “They can’t tell me it’s not my time to run. I’m not going to give in.”

Mr Pavlou hit international headlines in 2019 after organising a protest at the UQ St Lucia campus against a range of issues involving the Chinese Communist Party. A scuffle broke out with Chinese loyalists and Mr Pavlou and his family received death threats.

Senator Pauline Hanson with James Ashby. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Katter backed Mr Pavlou during the controversy and successfully lobbied for a federal parliamentary inquiry into foreign influence in Australian universities.

Last year, UQ suspended Mr Pavlou for two years over a range of other matters, reduced to six months on appeal. UQ maintains the action against Mr Pavlou was not related to his original protest or his comments on China.

Mr Pavlou said the rejection of his candidacy followed a story in The Courier-Mail in which he revealed he was in advanced talks with Mr Katter about running for the Senate.

“I guess it’s pretty obvious that Pauline views me as a threat,” he said.

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