Colin Thompson revealed as Clive Palmer’s pick to unseat Dawson MP George Christensen

An Airlie Beach project manager has been announced as Clive Palmer’s pick to challenge Dawson MP George Christensen at the upcoming Federal Election.

AIRLIE  Beach resident Colin Thompson has been announced as Clive Palmer’s pick to challenge Dawson MP George Christensen at the upcoming federal election.

Mr Thompson was revealed as the United Australia Party candidate for Dawson in a full-page advert in The Australian yesterday that featured the names, headshots, and mobile phone numbers of 123 Lower and Upper House candidates. Noticeably absent was a UAP candidate for Herbert.

Mr Palmer has previously hinted at a possible tilt for the ultra-marginal seat held by Labor’s Cathy O’Toole.

UAP candidate for Leichhardt Jen Sackley told the Bulletin the candidate for Herbert would be named in the next fortnight. She said the party was still going through the interview process and more than 20 people had raised their hand to run in the seat.

“The process has taken a bit longer than we thought it would,” she said. “The response has been overwhelming.”

United Australia Party candidate for Dawson Colin Thompson

Mr Thompson has lived in Airlie Beach for nearly 10 years with his family, after opting to move to the picturesque beachside town from Melbourne following his wife’s successful fight against breast cancer.

An operations manager in an industrial company that works closely with the sugar, mining, and power industries, he is also a former member of the economic body Bowen Collinsville Enterprise.

This is Mr Thompson’s first tilt at politics.

He said his passion was in community, and that he was concerned about the security of industries in the Dawson area and wanted to “promote better avenues of growth”.

“I’m keen on collaboration, about what can be achieved between government, industry and the community because more often than not those parts are divided,” he said.

“I’m very much in on logical decisions and responses in line with community expectation.

“Clear communication, not basing or validating someone’s positions based on someone else’s mistakes, I think that’s enough of that goes around.”

Mr Thompson said he had been connecting with local councils, grower groups and economic bodies and plans to visit the parts of the electorate that fall in the Townsville area in the near future.

The other candidates for Dawson include Labor’s Belinda Hassan and the Greens’ Imogen Lindenberg.

Originally published as Colin Thompson revealed as Clive Palmer’s pick to unseat Dawson MP George Christensen