Clementine Ford father Steven running for One Nation at state election
THE father of one of the most prominent left-wing commentators in the country will run for One Nation in the upcoming state election.
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THE father of one of the country’s most prominent left-wing commentators will run for One Nation in the upcoming state election.
Nicklin candidate Steven Ford, the father of feminist Clementine Ford, said he had been a long-time conservative and a member of the LNP until two years ago, when the party “lost their way”.
Ms Ford, who appears on several ABC panels and is a left-wing columnist for Fairfax, has made several disparaging comments about One Nation and its candidates, despite her father being endorsed for the party since early this year.
In a now-deleted Facebook post, Mr Ford said he was “very proud” of his daughter despite her alternate views and that Christmas dinner was always full of “robust conversation”.
“Clementine is my daughter and I am very proud of what she has achieved as a writer,” he wrote.
“She is a very intelligent woman and she was not raised to parrot my ideas and politics.”
Speaking to The Courier-Mail, Mr Ford said he was not prepared to discuss “family business”, however he said he had worked across the world running oil and gas drilling companies.
“I have been a conservative voter and conservative person all my life and I got frustrated with the LNP and the lack of direction, and really how poorly they went in the last federal election,” he said.
“I have worked in the Middle East and overseas and have been in the resource industry all my life and felt I had something to offer. One Nation offers a lot of policies I agree with.”
In her columns, Ms Ford slammed Pauline Hanson and her party as “childish”.
She also tweeted: “Someone who says even hello to a person from One Nation is a pariah.”
In August, Ms Ford wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald that Ms Hanson had “bigoted” views.
“Similarly, when you hear people say of Hanson … that ‘they’re just saying what everyone else is thinking’, what they really mean is ‘they’re saying what I’m thinking’. It gives them comfort to see people publicly flaunting their bigoted thoughts around religion, homosexuality, race politics and women (to name just a few things).”
The electorate of Nicklin will be up for grabs when the election is called with long-time incumbent Independent Peter Wellington retiring at the end of this term.
Originally published as Clementine Ford father Steven running for One Nation at state election