After contesting the seat in 2022, Phillip Musumeci will attempt a second tilt at winning Leichhardt for the Greens after being announced as the party’s candidate for the upcoming federal election. Photo: Supplied.
Tackling “absolute corruption” within the political system and ensuring some of the remotest electors in the country have a voice are two of the main catalysts driving the Greens candidate preparing for his second tilt at securing Leichhardt.
The Greens this month announced Phillip Musumeci as the party’s candidate for the vast electorate, with the James Cook University academic adviser having also challenged for the seat at the 2022 federal election.
“I ran last time because I couldn’t stand what I saw as absolute corruption,” he told Cape York Weekly.
“There were other things, but in the end, trying to inoculate the system against corruption was the big driver.
“We’ve still got fragments of that problem today; we need to ensure the preservation of our democratic system.”
Mr Musumeci received 9.97 per cent of first preference votes in 2022 and is hoping to improve on that result when voters head to the polls this year on a campaign platform of education, the environment, economic development and the infrastructure needed to deliver it.
He said he believed Cape York would play a critical role as the world moved towards renewable energy, adding he supported prioritising the sealing of the Peninsula Developmental Road for the economic and lifestyle benefits it would provide for the region.
“We have mines that produce minerals that will be in demand for things like renewable energy, and we have to be a part of that,” he said.
“There is a need for mineral sands or aluminium ultimately.
“The Greens are a bit pissed off about development that doesn’t consider the long-term impact.
“On the Cape roads, that’s just improving the liveability and that’s obviously a good thing; it does increase the ability for people to live a better life, so that’s the sort of infrastructure you have to do.”
Mr Musumeci is the third candidate to be formally announced in the fight for Leichhardt with Labor’s Matt Smith and the Liberal National Party’s Jeremy Neal.
After spending half his career in engineering and start-up business environments, Mr Musumeci said he believed regional entrepreneurial collaboration, including events like the 2025 Western Cape Futures Symposium, could help unlock local growth opportunities.
“You’re just trying to encourage local entrepreneurial activities,” he said.
“It often is these activities that spot an opportunity that leads to something; that kind of activity, that’s kind of a waving the flag to get people together to chat and talk about what it could lead to.
“There’s a bit of a sense of just get things done coming out of the Cape and [Torres Strait].”
An avid participant in the Cardiac Challenge each year, Mr Musumeci said he was currently working out the logistics of how his Cape York and Torres Strait campaign would look.
“I am trying to get one of our senators (Larissa Waters) up on the Cape,” he said.
“If she can get up there, I’ll definitely come up; I’m also looking at options at the moment, depending on what the weather’s doing.”
