What’s in a mayoral nomination form? The same as a councillor nomination: not much of interest.
But candidate Nick Hluszko’s nomination for mayor last week, published by the Electoral Commission of Queensland, proved to be an exception. One name stood out like a beacon as Hluszko’s second nominator – that of former Noosa councillor and deputy mayor Frank James Pardon, a convicted child sex offender who served 18 months non-parole jail time after receiving a three-year sentence in December 2019.
A lesser surprise on the form was the name of his third nominator, LNP-backed councillor candidate Alecia Staines, who is rumoured to have formed a loose alliance with Hluszko, mayoral candidate Ingrid Jackson and others, based on shared opposition to the creation of a Noosa River Conservation Park.
According to the ECQ website, a person who nominates an independent candidate only has to be a resident of Noosa, nothing more. In fact, now that he’s served his time, Frank Pardon could actually be a candidate himself, his crimes not having attracted a jail term of five years or more.
So, procedurally, there is nothing wrong with Pardon nominating Hluszko. Morally, it may also be considered by some as commendable on Hluszko’s part that he is letting a man who has done his time get on with life.
More behind the scenes news in Campaign Diary, pages 18-19.
