Graeme Campbell (born 13 August 1939) is an Australian far-right politician. Campbell represented the seat of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

in the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

from 1980 to 1998 as a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

. Campbell later founded the nationalist

Australia First Party The Australia First Party (AFP), officially known as the Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated, is an Australian nationalism, Australian nationalist political party founded in 1996 by Graeme Campbell (politician), Graeme Campbell, a former m ...

, before joining

Pauline Hanson's One Nation Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON), also known as One Nation (ON) or One Nation Party (ONP), is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia. It is led by Pauline Hanson. ...

Biography

Campbell was born in

Abingdon, Oxfordshire Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in the Vale of the White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. The historic county town of Berkshire, the area was occupied f ...

, England, and came to Australia as a child. He was educated at Urrbrae Agricultural High School in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. In 1972, Campbell met his future wife, French-Australian Michele Lelievre, at a sheep station in the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of 'no' and 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its no ...

. Campbell worked in a range of occupations before entering federal parliament in October 1980 as the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for

. Considered a maverick, he was an ardent supporter of the mining industry, and crossed the floor on gold tax in 1988, and was also a vocal critic of the Mabo decision and sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa, and a proponent of

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

mining. In October 1993, and again in May 1995, he delivered a speech at the national seminar of the

Australian League of Rights The Australian League of Rights is a far-right and antisemitic political organisation in Australia. It was founded in Adelaide, South Australia, by Eric Butler in 1946, and organised nationally in 1960. It inspired groups like the Canadian Lea ...

, a far-right group for which he was believed to hold sympathies, and in by-elections in Mackellar and

Warringah Warringah ( ) is a name taken from the local Aboriginal word for Middle Harbour, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It may refer to: * Division of Warringah, an electoral division of the Australian House of Representatives created in 1922 * E ...

(safe Liberal seats on the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the ...

of Sydney) in 1994, he urged electors to vote for

Australians Against Further Immigration Australians Against Further Immigration (AAFI) was a far-right Australian political party founded by radiologist Rodney Spencer and his wife Robyn, the parents of actor Jesse Spencer. The party described itself as " eco-nationalist", was oppose ...

(AAFI). After numerous run-ins with the Labor leadership and considerable media attention to his exploits, he was finally expelled from the party on 30 November 1995 after addressing an AAFI meeting where he criticised Labor's immigration policies. He continued to sit in parliament as an independent, and was reelected as an independent in the 1996 election, when he only received 35% of the primary vote, but defeated the Labor candidate, former

Deputy Premier of Western Australia The deputy premier of Western Australia is a role in the Government of Western Australia assigned to a Individual ministerial responsibility, responsible Minister in the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. ...

Ian Taylor, on Liberal preferences. In June 1996, Campbell founded the

, but was officially reckoned as an independent. He was defeated for reelection at the 1998 federal election after being eliminated on the seventh count. Campbell blamed his loss on Australia First being eclipsed by One Nation. In 2009, he claimed that, if not for the presence of a One Nation candidate, he would have picked up an additional 8.5% of the vote, which would have been enough to keep him in the race. He remained Australia First's leader until June 2001, when he left the party to stand (unsuccessfully) as a One Nation

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

candidate in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. In 2004, he attempted unsuccessfully to regain his old federal seat as an independent. He stood for the Senate in Western Australia at the 2007 federal election as an independent, but only achieved 0.13% of the vote.

References

Bibliography

* Graeme Campbell and Mark Uhlmann. ''Australia Betrayed: How Australian democracy has been undermined and our naive trust betrayed'', Foundation Press, Perth, 1995. {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Graeme 1939 births Living people Pauline Hanson's One Nation politicians Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Kalgoorlie English emigrants to Australia People from Abingdon-on-Thames Australia First Party members of the Parliament of Australia Australian conspiracy theorists Australian MPs 1980–1983 Australian MPs 1983–1984 Australian MPs 1984–1987 Australian MPs 1987–1990 Australian MPs 1990–1993 Australian MPs 1993–1996 Australian MPs 1996–1998