There are always a few surprises come campaigning season but the news of former Australian Idol host James Mathison taking on ex PM Tony Abbott for his seat of Warringah has certainly added a little more spice to the mix.
The electorate, which encompasses suburbs like Manly, Mosman and Neutral Bay, is a seat which Mr Abbott has sat comfortably in for 22 years, with a current 15.4 margin.
Mathison, 38, went public with his plans of running as an Independent candidate for the Northern Beaches area on Saturday morning, vowing to use social media to capture the youth vote.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph the Frenchs Forest resident and father-of-two said he only made the decision to run a fortnight ago, after watching Mr Abbott announce his election campaign on Sky News.
“I just thought ‘who is holding him to account?”, Mathison told The Tele, suggesting Mr Abbott failed to deliver on many promises and he is out of touch with the public.
“I don’t think his stance and the stance of the far right of the Liberal Party reflect the community and that’s what we’re going to try to tap into. The Greens are too extreme. People here don’t overly trust Labor but they can’t stand Tony, so what do they do? They just sleepwalk into the polling booth and do what they’ve always done,” Mathison said.
Pushes for marriage equality, refugees and climate change will all be key campaigning points for Mathison, but he says right now his focus is letting people know he’s serious about his parliamentary aspirations.
“Letting people know you’re running is easy. The hard part is convincing them this isn’t a joke, it’s not a prank, or a stunt, that I really care about the community and I really care about changing the way we do this,” Mathison said.
“Maybe it’s crazy to think you can win a safe seat like this, but I think it’s even crazier to reward someone who has just not delivered for the community and has deceived the nation over and over and over again. I think that’s even crazier.”
The political hopeful – who earlier this month was taken away by police during a protest to stop Moreton Bay fig trees being cut down at Moore Park in Sydney – changed his Twitter and Facebook accounts overnight to read: “Warringah deserves better”.
And whether he likes it or not Mathison has already won the support of another high profile Independent in Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambi.
“I love independents,” Lambi told the Today show on Saturday. “You go for it, James. Put those budgie smugglers on and give Tony Abbott a run.”
Using the Twitter hashtag #TimesUpTony and the slogan ‘Our Chance For A Change’ Mr Mathison, who may have drawn inspiration from American Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, told the Daily Tele he would crowd-fund his campaign and post his policy platform online in a series of pre-recorded video messages.
