Win Like Flynn's Stuns Nationals
The Age
Monday February 19, 2001
GATTON
Rusted-on National Party supporters who gathered at the Gatton RSL on Saturday night were left scratching their heads about One Nation's success in reclaiming the seat of Lockyer, 100 kilometres west of Brisbane.
One Nation's candidate, Bill Flynn, lived outside the electorate and was hardly known, they said. Pauline Hanson had raced through the electorate twice in the past week and disappeared.
Lockyer was a National Party seat for 18 years before being won by One Nation's Peter Prenzler in 1998. He later joined the fledgling City Country Alliance, which was wiped out on Saturday.
Mr Flynn, a police senior constable who became One Nation's candidate shortly before the poll, said he had won because voters were dissatisfied with the major parties.
The National Party candidate, Lindsay Christensen, had campaigned on local issues in Lockyer for 14 months. He said he was quietly confident on Saturday morning on learning that Labor was directing preferences to him.
``He (Flynn) admitted he knew nothing of the local issues. So it's got to be people aren't happy with the major parties or people aren't happy with my side of politics," he said. ``Obviously they're upset enough to think Pauline's going to do something or they just couldn't give a stuff and are sick of all politicians and Pauline's going to fix it. I'm like everyone else, I just can't work it out."
Mr Christensen said he expected Prime Minister John Howard would get ``a hell of a shock in Queensland" at the next federal election.
© 2001 The Age
