Mia Armitage*
Less than a week out from a Richmond Meet the Candidates forum to be held in Byron Bay next Monday, mystery surrounds the One Nation candidate and her connection to the electorate.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation lower house candidate for the seat of Richmond in May’s federal election is Tracey Bell-Henselin, who has formerly represented the minor party in a Queensland state election.
Ms Bell-Henselin had failed to respond to interview requests from Bay FM and The Echo as of Tuesday morning, and had also failed to advise whether or not she would attend a Meet the Candidates forum in the Byron Theatre Monday 16 May.
Richmond’s One Nation ‘ghost’
The Echo contacted One Nation headquarters last week to enquire about Ms Bell-Henselin, who was registered as the party’s Richmond candidate but was missing from their website.
One Nation said the omission would be rectified but Ms Bell-Henselin’s profile was still missing from the site Tuesday morning, whereupon One Nation advised it would be uploaded within ten minutes of the phone conversation.
The omission was just one of several noted by other media in the federal election campaign, leading to accusations that One Nation was hosting so-called ‘ghost’ candidates across the country.
Ghost candidates didn’t just live in electorates besides the ones they were representing on ballot papers, they were barely visible on the ground campaigning.
Ms Bell-Henselin’s Facebook profile as of Tuesday morning suggested she still lived in Queensland’s sunshine coast hinterland.
The page only mentioned Richmond in reference to her how-to-vote cards, which suggested preferencing the Liberal Democrats and Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, and putting The Greens last.
Recently posted photos included one of the Big Prawn in Ballina, indicating the candidate had traveled to the region in early May.
Your chance to question Richmond candidates
Meanwhile, the other nine candidates for the federal seat of Richmond have confirmed their attendance at next Monday’s forum in the Byron Theatre.
Members of the community are to be invited to put questions to the panel as part of live broadcast and streamed event at bayfm.org; if your community group or cause has a question related to federal policy, please email [email protected] with subject: ‘Richmond Meet the Candidates’.
Bay FM’s Community Newsroomis featuring interviews with candidates in the lead-up to the forum: tune in via the website or 99.9 on your radio dial from 11am each Friday, or listen back via the program guide.
Listen back to Richmond candidate interviews via Bay FM
Interviews with Independents David Warth and Terry Sharples and United Australia Party candidate Rob Marks are available to listen to on demand here.
You can listen to last week’s interviews with Liberal Democrats Party candidate Gary Biggs, Informed Medical Options Party candidate Monica Shepherd, and Independent Nathan Jones here.
Interviews with incumbent Labor member Justine Elliot, Nationals candidate Kimberley Hone and The Greens candidate Mandy Nolan are scheduled to air this Friday.
* Mia Armitage is a Bay FM member and Community Newsroom reporter
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