Jeff Horn and Pauline Hanson to meet in Rocky at anti-bullying
He famously said in 2017 that he backed Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s re-election campaign but boxing legend Jeff Horn is about to step into a very different political corner in Rockhampton before the October 31 poll.
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He was picked to deliver the knockout blow for Annastacia Palaszczuk’s last campaign but Jeff Horn will appear today with Pauline Hanson in the orange corner as the 2020 race heats up.
Both camps deny the bullying prevention forum in Rockhampton is a campaign event but concede political undertones are hard to dismiss.
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Horn will appear for free as the ambassador and director for an anti-bullying program he and business partner Frank Mechler are seeking to expand into central Queensland with Rockhampton One Nation candidate Torin O’Brien.
Mr O’Brien, a champion Muay Thai fighter, ex-slaughterman and medical marijuana advocate, has seized on the issue after being inundated on the campaign trail by parents horrified at graphic videos of vicious schoolyard brawls.
He has also thrown open the doors of his boxing gym for free to teach scared children how to protect themselves but concedes his “hard line” approach is not universally supported.
“I have a particular style. Some people disagree with it, not many, but I don’t teach kids to walk away and get punched in the back of the head, we teach these kids to create maximum damage with minimum effort while absorbing as minimal damage as possible,” he said
“While it has never had to get to that point yet, I am teaching these kids to look after themselves properly knowing full well they will get in trouble.”
He said today’s event was to introduce Horn’s more holistic AMAYDA program to community and business leaders so it could be rolled out for the start of the next school year.
Mr O’Brien said the event would not be a political show with no One Nation signage or paraphernalia on display but it would be impossible to remove all political links.
“I’m in the middle of the campaign so the most political thing about it will be that I happen to be in the middle of a campaign,” he said.
Senator Hanson said she was going because the world had changed from her childhood when a “small amount of physical or verbal bullying occurred”.
“Many parents and grandparents are now having to deal with cyber and social bullying and unless you’ve got your finger on the pulse and know what signs to look for, it’s having enormous effects on the youth of today,” she said.
Horn was unavailable for an interview but Mr Mechler put some distance between the AMAYDA program and Mr O'Brien's tactics.
Mr Mechler, a martial arts expert, said AMAYDA taught children to “positively deal with bullying situations by educating and training them with certain skills and strategies and teaching role play to give positive outcomes”.
Mr Mechler said there was martial arts component to teach self defence.
“We’ve got a program that works and they’re (One Nation) getting behind it,” he said.
He said Horn was “not political” but was committed to raising awareness of the issue.
“The fact that (Mr O’Brien’s) organised it, he’s just organised it, but as he said he didn’t want to get political because it’s all about the community up there and doing what’s right and that’s really what he’s about.
“Whether he gets political gain out of that and I’m sure he will get some leverage off of it but that’s not why it’s being done.”
He said they’d been dealing with the government for years on the program but had grown frustrated with a lack of support.
“Unfortunately the support is, you know, they like to say they’re going to do a lot but the actualisation of doing a lot is two different things,” he said.
One Nation has committed to supporting a pilot program that will extend the work of AMAYDA in schools across Queensland.
Horn’s appearance seems to signal a shift in his relationship with Ms Palaszczuk which peaked in 2017 after he shocked the boxing world to become WBO welterweight world champion.
Horn famously introduced the Premier at Labor’s 2017 campaign launch with the line, “she backs me in my title defence, and I back her in hers”.
Ms Palaszczuk’s Twitter feed had been a virtual timeline of Horn’s rise and fall in the boxing world but she last mentioned him in August on the day before he lost to Tim Tszyu in Townsville.
