“Changing horses”
Fringe parties in Buderim and Fairfax
by Erin Maclean
In the past month, the Queensland state electorate of Buderim has been the focus of state political news — its representative, Steve Dickson, defected from the Liberal National Party (LNP) after 12 years to become the Queensland leader of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON).
This is not the first time the Sunshine Coast area has attracted media attention for its populist politicians. In 2013, the federal electorate of Fairfax, which overlaps Buderim’s boundaries, went against its long-running LNP tradition to elect billionaire candidate and founder of the Palmer United Party, Clive Palmer.
Though populism is a loose term that can be applied to centrist, left- or right-leaning parties, it broadly refers to a political approach that sets the voice of ‘the people’ against the political elite.
As represented by PHON, the current strain of populism in Australia is conservative and critical of minority groups, capitalising on disaffection and dissatisfaction with those in power who supposedly fail to act in ordinary voters’ interests.
What is it about the semi-rural electorates of Buderim and Fairfax that have recently allowed fringe political groups to find a foothold in them?
Issues in Buderim and Fairfax
As is common on the Sunshine Coast, both electorates have higher-than-average populations of older citizens, arguably contributes to the high LNP and conservative vote. However, voters may be persuaded by policies that boost the aged pension and superannuation, as Clive Palmer pitched in 2013.
At the other end of the demographic spectrum, Buderim supposedly has the region’s highest concentration of students. This means the notoriously poor internet connectivity, traffic congestion and public transport are all key issues that can be used to appeal to voters in the area — and are sources of potential frustration with the current LNP federal government and Queensland’s Labor minority government.
Living costs and meaningful employment are also leading concerns, with up to 50 per cent of Sunshine Coast residents living below the poverty line and the region relying on trade-exposed industries like tourism and agriculture. The LNP’s intended introduction of the 32.5 per cent backpacker tax, for example, threatened the struggling pineapple industry until negotiations with PHON senators meant a compromise of 15 per cent — although Labor, the Greens and other fringe party senators like Jacqui Lambie argued for it to be even lower.
Despite its ageing population, Fairfax has a slightly higher-than-national-average incidence of early mortality due to external causes (rather than disease). While it is lower than most rural Queensland electorates, where suicide is prevalent, it is significant for this region to be plagued by suicide and the state’s highest road toll.
Dickson’s defection
Unfortunately for Buderim and Fairfax, these are not easy issues to address — and years of LNP-control means voters may be feeling ignored by inaction. This allows anti-establishment representatives like Clive Palmer (and PHON) to swoop in, even though Palmer’s short-lived political career ultimately disappointed the region.
Now that Steve Dickson is aligned with PHON, the party is making a clear effort to appeal to Buderim voters ahead of the state election, due by early 2018. Of One Nation’s 27 federal and 10 general state policies, the party lists an increase to the aged pension and protection of university students’ allowances; it also has general policies about employment and primary industries (with one of its aims being to “promote tourism”).
More specifically, Dickson immediately promised his electorate the $440m Mooloolah River interchange will go ahead if PHON wins government in Queensland — as unlikely as that may be at this stage. Further, the party’s website lists no policies clearly addressing internet connectivity, transport infrastructure, mental health or building additional industry in the area.
Instead, PHON’s greatest priorities (as demonstrated through the detail of their policies) are taking on Islam, Halal certification and immigration — issues that wouldn’t seem to be the most pressing to the mostly Australian-born and English-speaking population of Buderim.
Though Dickson says his defection is about fast-tracking access to medicinal cannabis, after delays from the major parties, it seems likely he changed allegiance for its anti-Islam view. Previously, he presented the Sunshine Coast Safe Communities’ mosque-banning petition to state parliament.
His stance on medicinal cannabis is certainly appropriate for his electorate’s ageing population, but Dickson could have just as easily taken a principled stand against the major parties as an independent; he is, after all, a popular and long-time representative of the area, as a local councillor and MP for nearly two decades.
Re-election?
It seems unlikely Dickson would be re-elected while being aligned with PHON. In fact, he admitted in his resignation speech he is “putting [his] career on the line” by changing parties. His defection alone is likely to burn bridges with long-time LNP voters of the area, but the reality is also that, even though Buderim and Fairfax have ended up with populist parties in recent years, they do not necessarily vote that way.
Dickson was elected as a member of the LNP in one of Queensland’s safer LNP seats and, at the 2016 federal election, the Fairfax polling booths in Buderim’s boundaries were far more favourable to the Greens than One Nation — receiving as much as two and a half times the vote.
Fairfax voters were not necessarily persuaded by Clive Palmer’s message in 2013 — first preferences favoured the LNP, with Palmer winning the seat by just 53 votes on Labor and Greens preferences. While it is impressive for a non-major party candidate to receive 26.5 per cent of the vote, this is not shocking considering the sitting LNP member retired and Palmer was likely the most well known of all candidates for his business dealings.
To address voter concerns and combat instability and disaffection, an obvious solution — as discussed by The Machinery of Government this month — may be greater public consultation to reduce levels of disaffection in the community. But the evidence so far suggests Buderim and Fairfax are not particularly persuaded by the populist message.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ERIN MACLEAN
Erin is a freelance journalist and PhD student at Griffith University.
Erin specialises in news media depictions of popular culture, but is particularly interested in the way media framing affects public perception and politics.
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