Shaun Nelson
Encyclopedia
Shaun Nelson is an Australia
n politician. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
from 1998 to 2001, representing the electorate of Tablelands
. He was elected as one of 11 MPs of the One Nation Party
at the 1998 state election, before resigning from the party to sit as an independent in February 1999. He served out the remainder of his term before being defeated by One Nation candidate Rosa Lee Long
at the 2001 election.
and joined the military at a young age, serving in th Australian Army as an operational signalman. He initially joined the Liberal Party of Australia
, but first became involved in organised politics when, at the age of 24, he was one of the founders of the Australian Capital Territory
branch of the One Nation Party. The launch of a branch by the right-wing party in liberal Canberra
caused controversy, with Nelson claiming of being denied meeting venues before organising its first meetings amid public protests in July. He was subsequently appointed as the inaugural president of the party's ACT branch. Nelson was behind a move to have the party contest the 1998 territory election
that was subsequently vetoed by national party president Pauline Hanson
. He later resigned as branch president in December 1997, citing personal reasons, later revealed to be a marriage breakdown.
Nelson returned to Queensland
after the collapse of his marriage, and was preselected as the One Nation candidate for the seat of Tablelands
for the 1998 election, challenging incumbent Mines and Energy Minister Tom Gilmore. Tablelands was considered a safe seat for the rural conservative National Party, held by a margin of more than twenty percent, and Nelson was not generally considered likely to pose a serious threat to Gilmore. Despite having only had three months to campaign, he polled more than 42% of the vote on election day, defeating Gilmore on preferences and becoming Queensland's youngest member of parliament. He declared his priorities upon his election as being the abolition of mining lease fees, the reintroduction of the death penalty, opposition to Aboriginal native title and resisting the deregulation of the dairy industry.
. He caused some early controversy by calling for the legalisation of prostitution in Queensland, echoing the pro-sex industry position he had taken while president of the ACT branch, in sharp opposition to the stance of new party leader Feldman. He was again the cause of some controversy later that month, when he declared on television that students protesting against One Nation were "being used by communists and socialists in their agenda to destroy the unity of Australia". Nelson was the party's nominee for speaker in the new parliament, but lost to Labor candidate Ray Hollis
. Along with several other One Nation MPs, he used his inaugural speech to parliament on 30 July to declare his intent to pursue further investigation of the Heiner affair, the alleged 1990 shredding of documents relating to a child abuse inquiry during the Goss
Labor government.
Nelson continued to spark some controversy throughout his first months in parliament. In early August, he challenged Greek-born Labor backbencher Jim Fouras
to "step outside" after Fouras had criticised Nelson's opposition to multiculturalism
. He also twice made inadvertent breaches of parliamentary privileges, using the parliamentary crest on letters advertising a One Nation function and referring to himself with the "honourable" title, which as a backbencher he had not been granted. He was repeatedly critical of the anti-immigrant party being labelled as racist, but was himself accused of racism after claiming that there were "Aboriginal children lying drunk in the gutter" in the north Queensland town of Mareeba
. Nelson was vocal in his opposition to Aboriginal native title, claiming that the Beattie government's 1998 legislation to establish a state-based regime was "worse than apartheid". He was an ardent supporter of an unsuccessful attempt by independent MP Peter Wellington
to initiate citizen initiated referendums in Queensland in November 1998. Nelson was staunchly critical of the media's role in the demise of his One Nation colleague Charles Rappolt
, who resigned from parliament in November 1998 before committing suicide. Nelson remained known for his socially conservative views, and was labelled as engaging in gay scare tactics by The Australian
after claiming during the 1998 Mulgrave by-election
campaign that the Beattie government would legalise same-sex marriage and allow homosexual couples to adopt children if it won the by-election, and thus majority government.
and her advisors David Oldfield and David Ettridge
. The tensions came to a head in early February 1999, when Hanson, Oldfield and Ettridge attempted to institute a national constitution locking them into absolute control of the state branches and giving them control of the party's finances. In return, the entire Queensland parliamentary party threatened to resign unless a 10-point list of demands for greater internal democracy were met. It was followed only days later by the resignations of three of the party's 10 remaining MPs - Nelson, deputy leader Dorothy Pratt
, and Ken Turner
. All three announced that they would serve out the remainder of their terms as independents. He was harshly critical of his former party in the days afterwards, declaring it to be "totally undemocratic" and "on the verge of collapse", and claiming that Oldfield and Feldman were conducting a smear campaign against him. The prospect of Nelson joining the National Party in the wake of the defection was briefly discussed, but subsequently ruled out by the National Party.
Nelson's resignation from One Nation had immediate consequences for his role as an MP, as his taxpayer-funded resources, along with those of Pratt and Turner, were slashed by $30,000 a year. Several weeks later, he had his office shifted away from his former colleagues, complaining of heightened tensions and threats being made against him. He was a vocal opponent of the Beattie
government's decision to apologise to the victims of the Stolen Generation
in May 1999, and repeatedly interjected during the reading of the apology motion into the parliamentary record, defying the speaker's orders to resume his seat. Despite his generally socially conservative views, he was behind an unsuccessful attempt to pass a Private Member's Bill
legalising voluntary euthanasia
in Queensland
. Nelson became the first MP in four years to be suspended from parliament in July 1999 after repeatedly defying the speaker's calls for order during a vocal parliamentary attack on then-health minister Wendy Edmond
.
Nelson continued to maintain a reputation as a conservative maverick as an independent MP, and in September 1999, called for the introduction of conscription for the long-term unemployed to supplement Australia's then-peacekeeping operation in East Timor
. Although he had earlier supported proposals to legalise prostitution in the state, he voted against such moves by the Beattie government in December 1999, arguing that the laws would be impossible to enforce. He caused some controversy in May 2000 when, along with Dorothy Pratt, he was suspended from parliament for 28 days and threatened with expulsion for pouring a milk churn down the stairs of parliament during a protest against the deregulation of the dairy industry. This meant that Nelson had spent more days suspended from the house than any other MP in more than 25 years.
Nelson recontested his seat as an independent at the 2001 state election, and faced a three way battle with National Party candidate and local councillor Joe Moro and endorsed One Nation candidate Rosa Lee Long
, the president of the party's Tablelands branch and a former Nelson campaign worker. The contest was widely viewed as being too close to call during the campaign, and a poll by the Cairns Post in the last week of the campaign showed the vote almost even between the three conservative candidates and Labor candidate Arthur Yates. He subsequently won only 15 percent of the vote, finishing fourth overall behind the One Nation, Labor and National candidates, with One Nation candidate Long the victor. In his concession speech, he controversially declared that he was "horrified to be a Tablelander at this moment." He has largely remained out of public life since his election defeat, and has not run for any other public office.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Queensland Legislative Assembly
The Queensland Legislative Assembly is the unicameral chamber of the Parliament of Queensland. Elections are held approximately once every three years. Voting is by the Optional Preferential Voting form of the Alternative Vote system...
from 1998 to 2001, representing the electorate of Tablelands
Electoral district of Tablelands
Tablelands was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.Prior to its abolition, it encompassed towns on the Atherton Tablelands west of Cairns, including Mareeba, Atherton, Ravenshoe, Chillagoe and Mount Molloy. The seat was won by the One Nation Party...
. He was elected as one of 11 MPs of the One Nation Party
One Nation Party
One Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...
at the 1998 state election, before resigning from the party to sit as an independent in February 1999. He served out the remainder of his term before being defeated by One Nation candidate Rosa Lee Long
Rosa Lee Long
Rosa Theresa Lee Long is a former member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly representing the electorate Tablelands in Northern Queensland, Australia for the One Nation Party...
at the 2001 election.
Early career
Nelson was raised in South East, Western and Northern QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and joined the military at a young age, serving in th Australian Army as an operational signalman. He initially joined the Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
, but first became involved in organised politics when, at the age of 24, he was one of the founders of the Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
branch of the One Nation Party. The launch of a branch by the right-wing party in liberal Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
caused controversy, with Nelson claiming of being denied meeting venues before organising its first meetings amid public protests in July. He was subsequently appointed as the inaugural president of the party's ACT branch. Nelson was behind a move to have the party contest the 1998 territory election
Australian Capital Territory general election, 1998
Elections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly were held on Saturday, 21 February 1998. The incumbent Liberal Party, led by Kate Carnell, was challenged by the Labor Party, led by Wayne Berry. Candidates were elected to fill three multi-member electorates using a single...
that was subsequently vetoed by national party president Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-multiculturalism platform...
. He later resigned as branch president in December 1997, citing personal reasons, later revealed to be a marriage breakdown.
Nelson returned to Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
after the collapse of his marriage, and was preselected as the One Nation candidate for the seat of Tablelands
Electoral district of Tablelands
Tablelands was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.Prior to its abolition, it encompassed towns on the Atherton Tablelands west of Cairns, including Mareeba, Atherton, Ravenshoe, Chillagoe and Mount Molloy. The seat was won by the One Nation Party...
for the 1998 election, challenging incumbent Mines and Energy Minister Tom Gilmore. Tablelands was considered a safe seat for the rural conservative National Party, held by a margin of more than twenty percent, and Nelson was not generally considered likely to pose a serious threat to Gilmore. Despite having only had three months to campaign, he polled more than 42% of the vote on election day, defeating Gilmore on preferences and becoming Queensland's youngest member of parliament. He declared his priorities upon his election as being the abolition of mining lease fees, the reintroduction of the death penalty, opposition to Aboriginal native title and resisting the deregulation of the dairy industry.
One Nation MP
Nelson was one of four candidates for the state leadership of One Nation after the election, but lost out to Bill FeldmanBill Feldman
William Patrick "Bill" Feldman is a former Australian politician. He was a police officer before entering politics, having attained the rank of sergeant in 1994. On 7 May 1978 he had married Gail, with whom he has two children, Dannielle and Luke...
. He caused some early controversy by calling for the legalisation of prostitution in Queensland, echoing the pro-sex industry position he had taken while president of the ACT branch, in sharp opposition to the stance of new party leader Feldman. He was again the cause of some controversy later that month, when he declared on television that students protesting against One Nation were "being used by communists and socialists in their agenda to destroy the unity of Australia". Nelson was the party's nominee for speaker in the new parliament, but lost to Labor candidate Ray Hollis
Ray Hollis
Raymond Keith "Ray" Hollis is a former Australian politician. Born in London, England, he migrated to Australia in 1962 as a merchant seaman and worked in a variety of occupations, including a railway worker, cook, paper mill operator, insurance salesman and a position with the Victorian...
. Along with several other One Nation MPs, he used his inaugural speech to parliament on 30 July to declare his intent to pursue further investigation of the Heiner affair, the alleged 1990 shredding of documents relating to a child abuse inquiry during the Goss
Wayne Goss
Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996.-Early life:He was born at Mundubbera, Queensland and educated at Inala High School and the University of Queensland...
Labor government.
Nelson continued to spark some controversy throughout his first months in parliament. In early August, he challenged Greek-born Labor backbencher Jim Fouras
Jim Fouras
Demetrios "Jim" Fouras is a former Australian politician. Born in Greece, he migrated to Queensland where he was a research chemist and then a marketing economist with the Department of Primary Industries. In 1977, he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for South...
to "step outside" after Fouras had criticised Nelson's opposition to multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
. He also twice made inadvertent breaches of parliamentary privileges, using the parliamentary crest on letters advertising a One Nation function and referring to himself with the "honourable" title, which as a backbencher he had not been granted. He was repeatedly critical of the anti-immigrant party being labelled as racist, but was himself accused of racism after claiming that there were "Aboriginal children lying drunk in the gutter" in the north Queensland town of Mareeba
Mareeba, Queensland
Mareeba is a town on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia. The town is above sea level on the confluence of the Barron River, Granite Creek and Emerald Creek. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning meeting of the waters...
. Nelson was vocal in his opposition to Aboriginal native title, claiming that the Beattie government's 1998 legislation to establish a state-based regime was "worse than apartheid". He was an ardent supporter of an unsuccessful attempt by independent MP Peter Wellington
Peter Wellington
Peter Wellington is an Independent member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, for the Electoral district of Nicklin. Wellington, along with fellow independent Liz Cunningham, briefly held the balance in power following the 1998 state election...
to initiate citizen initiated referendums in Queensland in November 1998. Nelson was staunchly critical of the media's role in the demise of his One Nation colleague Charles Rappolt
Charles Rappolt
Charles Robert "Charlie" Rappolt was an Australian politician. A member of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, Rappolt spent five turbulent months in the Parliament of Queensland in 1998....
, who resigned from parliament in November 1998 before committing suicide. Nelson remained known for his socially conservative views, and was labelled as engaging in gay scare tactics by The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
after claiming during the 1998 Mulgrave by-election
Mulgrave state by-election, 1998
A by-election was held in the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Mulgrave on 5 December 1998. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting One Nation member Charles Rappolt.The by-election was won by Labor candidate Warren Pitt.-Background:...
campaign that the Beattie government would legalise same-sex marriage and allow homosexual couples to adopt children if it won the by-election, and thus majority government.
Resignation to sit as independent
Media reports of internal tensions within the party had persisted throughout late 1998 and early 1999, as the state caucus grew increasingly frustrated with a party hierarchy that saw most of the power concentrated in the hands of federal MP and party founder Pauline HansonPauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-multiculturalism platform...
and her advisors David Oldfield and David Ettridge
David Ettridge
David William Ettridge in Adelaide, Australia, is an Australian businessman who co-founded Pauline Hanson's One Nation in 1997 with Pauline Hanson and David Oldfield....
. The tensions came to a head in early February 1999, when Hanson, Oldfield and Ettridge attempted to institute a national constitution locking them into absolute control of the state branches and giving them control of the party's finances. In return, the entire Queensland parliamentary party threatened to resign unless a 10-point list of demands for greater internal democracy were met. It was followed only days later by the resignations of three of the party's 10 remaining MPs - Nelson, deputy leader Dorothy Pratt
Dorothy Pratt
Dorothy Ruth "Dolly" Pratt is an Australian politician. Born in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, she was a Justice of the Peace and coffee shop proprietor in Queensland before entering politics. She also worked at cattle sale yards. In 1998, she was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as...
, and Ken Turner
Ken Turner (politician)
Kenneth "Ken" Turner is a former Australian politician. He was born in Brisbane. Before his involvement in politics he was a commercial fisherman, and served in the Citizens Military Force 1961–1965. In 1998 he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as a member of Pauline...
. All three announced that they would serve out the remainder of their terms as independents. He was harshly critical of his former party in the days afterwards, declaring it to be "totally undemocratic" and "on the verge of collapse", and claiming that Oldfield and Feldman were conducting a smear campaign against him. The prospect of Nelson joining the National Party in the wake of the defection was briefly discussed, but subsequently ruled out by the National Party.
Nelson's resignation from One Nation had immediate consequences for his role as an MP, as his taxpayer-funded resources, along with those of Pratt and Turner, were slashed by $30,000 a year. Several weeks later, he had his office shifted away from his former colleagues, complaining of heightened tensions and threats being made against him. He was a vocal opponent of the Beattie
Peter Beattie
Peter Douglas Beattie , Australian politician, was the 36th Premier of the Australian state of Queensland for nine years and leader of the Australian Labor Party in that state for eleven and a half years...
government's decision to apologise to the victims of the Stolen Generation
Stolen Generation
The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments...
in May 1999, and repeatedly interjected during the reading of the apology motion into the parliamentary record, defying the speaker's orders to resume his seat. Despite his generally socially conservative views, he was behind an unsuccessful attempt to pass a Private Member's Bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
legalising voluntary euthanasia
Voluntary euthanasia
Voluntary euthanasia refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner...
in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. Nelson became the first MP in four years to be suspended from parliament in July 1999 after repeatedly defying the speaker's calls for order during a vocal parliamentary attack on then-health minister Wendy Edmond
Wendy Edmond
Wendy Marjorie Edmond, née Wood is a former Australian politician. Born in Bundaberg, she was a nuclear medicine technologist before entering politics. She was also a member of Amnesty International and the Wildlife Preservation Society, and had served as president of the Rainsworth Branch of the...
.
Nelson continued to maintain a reputation as a conservative maverick as an independent MP, and in September 1999, called for the introduction of conscription for the long-term unemployed to supplement Australia's then-peacekeeping operation in East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
. Although he had earlier supported proposals to legalise prostitution in the state, he voted against such moves by the Beattie government in December 1999, arguing that the laws would be impossible to enforce. He caused some controversy in May 2000 when, along with Dorothy Pratt, he was suspended from parliament for 28 days and threatened with expulsion for pouring a milk churn down the stairs of parliament during a protest against the deregulation of the dairy industry. This meant that Nelson had spent more days suspended from the house than any other MP in more than 25 years.
Nelson recontested his seat as an independent at the 2001 state election, and faced a three way battle with National Party candidate and local councillor Joe Moro and endorsed One Nation candidate Rosa Lee Long
Rosa Lee Long
Rosa Theresa Lee Long is a former member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly representing the electorate Tablelands in Northern Queensland, Australia for the One Nation Party...
, the president of the party's Tablelands branch and a former Nelson campaign worker. The contest was widely viewed as being too close to call during the campaign, and a poll by the Cairns Post in the last week of the campaign showed the vote almost even between the three conservative candidates and Labor candidate Arthur Yates. He subsequently won only 15 percent of the vote, finishing fourth overall behind the One Nation, Labor and National candidates, with One Nation candidate Long the victor. In his concession speech, he controversially declared that he was "horrified to be a Tablelander at this moment." He has largely remained out of public life since his election defeat, and has not run for any other public office.