By Jeremy Sollars
One Nation has announced its candidate to contest the seat of Southern Downs at the next State Election.
Josh Coyne of Texas will run under the One Nation banner whenever ALP Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk chooses to go the polls, which could still be sooner rather than later, with the next election officially due in January 2017.
Josh, 27, joins James Lister of the LNP and Independent Rob Mackenzie as the Southern Downs candidates to date, with the ALP yet to name its own runner.
Josh told the Free Times he was born and raised in Texas and still lives on the family property about 15 kilometres west of town with Dad Mick – a lifelong horsebreaker – and Mum Kym, who’s a nurse at the Texas Hospital.
His grandparents formerly owned the old Colonial Coffee Lounge on Warwick’s Palmerin Street.
He currently works as a dispatcher at the … coal mine at Narrabri in NSW and retains a strong interest in campdrafting.
After finishing school, Josh worked in the rural industry as a station hand in North Queensland and was later employed by Terry and Christine Hall for a number of years as a drover, droving cattle throughout stock routes in the Southern Downs electorate and western Queensland and New South Wales.
While Josh wouldn’t be drawn on the speculation around a possibly imminent election announcement, he told the Free Times he’s chosen “to take a stand as a voice for the people in the region”.
“I understand the hardships faced by everyday Australians, I am one, they are me, I am them,” he told the Free Times.
He said one of his priorities was to ensure that small business, farmers and graziers get the support they needed to stay profitable.
“So much of the Southern Downs relies on rural industry such as agriculture and horticulture to support its people,” he said.
“In the past, we have seen governments de-regulate industry that has crippled jobs.
“It’s time we had a government that stopped telling us what we need and started listening to what people want.
“It is time to put people before politics and focusing on the issues that everyday Queenslanders say are affecting them.”
