Local coal miner Luke Sleep will stand as One Nation’s candidate for the Hinchinbrook by-election on 29 November.

Mr Sleep, 46, lives in Townsville and has been working as a heavy machinery operator in the mining industry for the past five years. He wants to ensure the industry has the right settings to continue to contribute to Queensland.

“It’s the largest industry in Queensland, valued at more than $60 billion and supporting more than half a million jobs,” he said. “It’s absolutely critical we do what we can to enable this industry to thrive while ensuring Queenslanders get fair value in exchange for the exploitation of their resources.

“We need to strike the right balance with royalties so we don’t drive miners offshore or interstate.”

Mr Sleep said his priorities for Hinchinbrook were more affordable housing, reducing escalating crime rates and upgrading local roads and infrastructure.

“Housing affordability is an important issue for me, for Hinchinbrook and for the entire state of Queensland. The major parties have been hopeless on this issue, favouring mass immigration that only limits housing availability for Australians while also driving up rents. One Nation’s the only party with a strong plan to slash immigration and improve housing availability and affordability.

“Policies that make my community safer will also be a priority for me. The Crisafulli government made a lot of promises to reduce the escalating crime in regional Queensland, but we’re not seeing any difference here in Hinchinbrook. I’m backing One Nation’s policy for tougher penalties, a community panel to review court decisions that subsequently result in an offender committing crimes while on bail, and integrating proven intervention and redirection programs for at-risk young people in the justice system.

“I’m also keen to get funding to better flood-proof our local roads, and fix up the notorious Bruce Highway. Hinchinbrook gets a lot of rainfall and this means some of our roads get flooded on a regular basis. With a bit of work and support, we can upgrade these roads and keep Hinchinbrook moving.”

ENDS