Community
25 May, 2022
Serious Message Behind Lighthearted Fun
The fight for the seat of Leichhardt is in full swing with United Australia Party founder Clive Palmer flying into Cairns to throw his support behind local candidate Daniel Hannagan, Tuesday.
Amid the Party’s policies and promises, like introducing a 20% tax reduction for regional centres, Mr Hannagan revealed that about two-thirds of his election signs had been stolen.
Mr Hannagan said of the 900 election corflutes purchased, 600 of them had been stolen and were ending up in the region’s waterways.
Stealing election signage is an underhanded yet common practice amongst many political rivals, but for Mr Hannagan, one of Cairns’ most passionate environmental campaigners, it is personal.
“The worst thing for me is I’ve actually organised for everyone who wants to get their corflutes recycled, and they’re throwing them in creeks,” said Mr Hannagan.
“If you’re anti a party for some silly reason and you throw them in a creek, we can’t recycle the thing.
“And it’s not just kids doing this, we actually have footage of people driving Teslas doing this.
“So please, if you have stolen the signs can you bring them back to us so we can recycle them.”
The serious message gave way to some light-heartedness when Mr Hannagan was asked why he thought he was being targeted so fiercely.
“I think people want to remember this election and my win so they’re taking my pictures home so they can have a memento of this great occasion, and hopefully they’ll bring them to me in office, and I can sign them for them.” he joked.
Mr Hannagan is a fifth-generation Leichhardt local - his connection to the region beginning in 1898 with his great-grandmother’s birth on Thursday Island.
He specializes in finding sustainable solutions in today’s throwaway society, with the story of his success featured on the ABC’s “War on Waste” program.
