In his recent speech at the National Press Club in Canberra , Cape York Peninsula Partnership chairman , Noel Pearson , praised independent South Australian senator, Nick Xenophon, saying he was the best example of a new radical centre force needed to improve the Australian political system, which had failed indigenous affairs , now in deep crisis.
Xenophon , pictured above with a Ned Kelly helmet on his bookcase , used in a stunt to highlight the plight of Australian manufacturing , entered South Australian politics on the single issue of no more poker machines-one armed bandits- becoming aware through his legal practice of the serious community gambling problem.
Now he is a well known nation politician and is increasing bailing up sitting politicians with the formation of the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) , taking on major political parties in the House of Representatives and Senate .
NXT candidates named : Marie Rowland , a psychologist and counsellor , will stand against ousted former PM Tony Abbott , who says he will saddle up again in the seat of Warringah ... while she acknowledges it is a formidable task to knock Abbott off his bike, she is inspired by Maxine McKew defeating John Howard and independent Cathy Gowan downing frontbencher Sophie Mirabella; Dr Matthew Wright from the Flinders Medical Centre , who served in the Solomon Islands , Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste , will give irksome Innovations Minister Christopher Pyne a run for his money in Sturt ; there is an interesting situation in Mayo where Rebekha Sharkie , former staffer of Cities Minister Jamie Briggs who was recently forced to resign over an episode in Hong Kong involving him and a female public servant , is rarin' to go ; In Higgins ,mining consultant and event manager Nancy Bassett is taking on Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer ; in the seat of Groom , where sitting member Ian Macfarlane ,the dumped former Industry Minister ,who has threatened to leave the Liberals and join the Nationals , will be challenged by Josie Townsend , former publicist and marketing specialist.
Canberra is on the nose in Adelaide over the ham fisted handling of the new submarine contract and destruction of the car industry . Senator Xenophon will use this situation to torpedo the Feds and , to use a quaint Liberal leader expression , drive over the bastards in an NXT staff tank , secretly built for Nick at the doomed Elizabeth GMH plant , playing deafening Jimmy Barnes songs.
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Senate banditos Xenophon and John Madigan, the latter a former blacksmith and boilermaker
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