Teal candidate for Dickson, Ellie Smith, open to backing a Coalition minority government

With ambitions to win Peter Dutton’s Brisbane seat of Dickson, Climate 200-backed independent Ellie Smith said she would be open to forming a minority government with the Coalition.

Dickson Decides unveiled their independent candidate Ellie Smith to run against Peter Dutton in Dickson at a community launch in Bunya. Picture: Liam Kidston

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Opposition leader Peter Dutton is facing a new challenge to hold onto his marginal Brisbane seat of Dickson with the announcement of a Climate 200-backed candidate is running against him.

Environmentalist Ellie Smith, who was once a member of the anti-coal activist group “Lock the Gate”, launched her campaign for the outer-suburban electorate on Monday.

She rallied supporters on the priorities of cost-of-living and a strong economy, accusing the Liberal leader of losing touch with the electorate.

“Peter Dutton spends a lot of time on issues that aren’t reflected by our local community,” Ms Smith said.

“We want to see a local MP that is representing the local issues that we are hearing every day from Australians here in Dickson; things like cost of living, things like making sure that our small businesses can stay in business and are supported, things like climate resilience for our communities who are facing floods almost every year.”

Ms Smith ruled out preference deals with either of the major parties and would instead allow the community to decide the order of their ballot papers.

Despite denying her status as a “teal independent”, the colour featured on Ms Smith’s maroon campaign materials and the shirts of more than 200 people from the community group ‘Dickson Decides’ who offered support for the local mum from Camp Mountain.

Ms Smith confirmed she had received financial backing from Climate 200, founded by activist and businessman Simon Holmes a Court.

A spokeswoman for Dickson Decides said they had received $25,000 from Climate 200’s Community Accelerator Fund, designed to help community groups scale-up and have a “genuine chance” to have a candidate elected.

The electorate of Dickson sits in the outer-suburban mortgage-belt north of Brisbane. Mr Dutton has held the seat for 24 years, but after a 3.9 per cent swing against the Liberal leader in 2022, he holds it on a margin of 1.7 per cent.

Labor candidate Ali France will contest the seat for a third time, while the Greens’ Vinnie Batten is also running again after securing 3 per cent of the swing at the last election.

When asked about whether, in the unlikely scenario, she was to defeat Mr Dutton, Ms Smith said she would be willing to enter discussions with the Coalition to resolve a hung parliament.

However, she said it was too soon to decide which major parties she would support to form a minority government.

“There’s lots of factors that go into who might form a government after the election,” Ms Smith said.

“By definition, if I win, the LNP will be a very different party with a different leader.

“If the LNP went away and had some deep thinking about their policies and what has got them into this position, then I’m not ruling anything out.”

She rejected the suggestion she would vote in a block alongside sitting independents who have also received backing from the fund.

“They represent their local communities,” Ms Smith said. “I will be elected by the people here of Dickson, not anybody else.”

Climate 200 has set its sights on Queensland ahead of the upcoming election, targeting key LNP seats of McPherson and Moncrieff on the Gold Coast, and Fairfax and Fischer on the Sunshine Coast.