SBS’s Brooke Boney reports (24.5.16) on the electoral contest for the federal seat of Fairfax on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, asking local residents of the nation’s most marginal seat about their impressions of retiring member, Clive Palmer. She also interviews TJRyan Foundation Research Associate, Chris Salisbury, about the implications of the absence of Palmer United Party candidates in this and other marginal Queensland seats.
‘The federal seat of Fairfax stretches from Maroochydore in the south to the Palmer-owned Coolum resort in the north.
‘And now that Clive Palmer has confirmed he won’t contest a Queensland Senate spot with the Palmer United Party, his political career has gone the way of the dinosaurs he so proudly displays at the resort he once operated in the electorate.
‘The resort once employed 650 people but now runs on a skeleton staff, rumoured to be 23 employees.
‘Local man, Michael, told SBS News the community would be glad to see the end of his reign in the electorate.’
- Election 2016: Voters disillusioned as battle for Palmer’s seat of Fairfax revs up »
- The PUP has been put to sleep, so what of its preferences? »
- View from the Street: Goodbye Clive Palmer, Clive Palmer goodbye »
- Clive Palmer’s political extinction playing out among the dinosaurs »
- Fairfax: Polarising Palmer’s playground »