Interstate soccer WAG Nikki Smeltz is top pick for SA’s Trumpet of Patriots senate ticket ahead of Matilda Bawden
An interstate WAG – who stood for billionaire Clive Palmer’s old United Australia Party in Queensland – headlines his new political party’s candidates in SA.
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Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party lists an interstate WAG as its top South Australian senate pick while its fourth-named candidate is banned from sharing health education over Covid-19 vaccines.
Nicole Smeltz was assistant director for billionaire Mr Palmer’s former United Australia Party in New South Wales at the 2019 and 2020 elections, according to a media release.
She also appeared in the UAP’s election advertisement.
Now Ms Smeltz is his new party’s top SA senate candidate with a media release saying Ms Smeltz attended Sacred Heart College and that she is a “proud South Australian” with “deep roots in the community”.
Ms Smeltz is married to former A-League footballer Shane Smeltz with whom she has “travelled extensively” and also has worked as “an international cabin crew flight attendant for Qantas and holds a full real estate licence.”
She stood for the United Australia Party in Queensland at the 2020 election.
Ms Smeltz and party spokesperson Andrew Crook did not return calls to confirm where she is now living and where Ms Smeltz has been campaigning in SA.
There was also scant information about her candidacy on the party website.
Matilda Bawden was listed fourth on the SA senate ballot with candidate information on the party website saying she “brings over three decades of frontline experience in forensic social work, disability advocacy and public sector reform”.
In March 2022, the South Australian Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner Professor Grant Davies found Ms Bawden “breached multiple clauses of the Code of Conduct for Certain Health Care Workers”.
This meant she was “prohibited from providing health education and/or providing information relating to Covid-19 and Covid-19 vaccines” as a social worker.
Associate Professor Davies said an investigation “found Ms Bawden had provided manifestly false and misleading claims” and that she provided “false statistics about deaths attributable to Covid-19 vaccines”.
A Health and Community Services public statement said that in an email on April 7, 2021, Ms Bawden said she would be suspending services for a month with service providers, consumers, family and friends who received a Covid-19 vaccine.
“She inferred that a person who received a Covid-19 vaccine could ‘shed’ and cause others to contract Covid-19 and the risk from a Covid-19 vaccine was greater than the virus itself,” the public statement said.
“The Australian government department of health advises none of the approved vaccines in Australia contain the live virus and this means they cannot infect you with Covid-19.”
Ms Bawden listed the cost of living, housing affordability, excessive Centrelink queues and wait times to connect to payments, elder abuses in nursing homes and difficulties accessing NDIS as key issues to South Australians.
When contacted by The Advertiser, she questioned the validity of the Health and Community Services Complaints Commision’s prohibition order, claiming it was “no more than a media stunt”.
“I have spent 40 years advocating for the human and legal rights of vulnerable and disenfranchised people of SA,” she said.
Originally published as Interstate soccer WAG Nikki Smeltz is top pick for SA’s Trumpet of Patriots senate ticket ahead of Matilda Bawden
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