Former rugby league player and business owner Greg Dowling is having his third tilt at federal politics and is representing Clive Palmer’s new Trumpet of Patriots on the Leichhardt ballot. Photo: Supplied.
He’s tackled some fearsome challenges on the paddock, but Greg Dowling says nothing will be as hard as the fight he will put into representing Cape York and Torres Strait voters if they give him the nod as the new Member for Leichhardt.
The former rugby league prop, who was capped 11 times for Queensland and 12 times for his country, now also has more than 25 years’ experience as a small business owner on his scorecard and said he would be on the ground in the northernmost part of the seat battling for residents and businesses crippled by cost of living pressures.
“I know what it takes to make a small business successful but, mind you, it is getting harder and harder,” he said after being announced as the candidate for Clive Palmer’s new Trumpet of Patriots (TOP) party.
“We need to work together with the local council and the state, and me as federal, and work together; we need to get the local businesses involved as well and … try to get some solutions – you can’t stay in Cairns and abandon them (the Cape and Torres Strait) because that’s not really having your interests at heart.”
Mr Dowling, who contested the electorate of Herbert for the United Australia Party in 2019 and 2022, said he was now challenging in Leichhardt and said he believed the region needed a shift from the two major parties after almost three decades of stewardship by former MP Warren Entsch.
“I’ve moved back up here and I’m back in Cairns, so I just thought I’d throw my hat in the ring because I think I’ve got something to offer the people of Leichhardt,” he said.
“I think after 26 years of Liberal reign, they need someone to fight for them; all the things that get promised stay in the city and this is what’s going to happen again – we’ve got to try and stop the two-party monopoly.”
Mr Dowling said he believed key infrastructure – including improved health facilities, sea walls in the Torres Strait to combat rising sea levels and a sports academy in the Northern Peninsula Area – was critical to stabilising the region and stimulating economic growth, as was the development of agricultural alternatives like biofuel.
He slammed former federal and state governments for neglecting the Peninsula Developmental Road (PDR) and said “enough was enough” when it came to remote infrastructure being relegated to the bottom of the priority list.
“That’s one of the things I want to bring to the Cape, the infrastructure needed,” he said.
“It (the PDR) definitely should have been completed; we’re in 2025, not 1930, that’s the sad part.
“They’ve been overlooked for so long – enough is enough.
“It’s a great area up there, and its only getting busier and busier; the world’s your oyster on the Cape.”
When asked about the criticism surrounding Mr Palmer and his colourful political past, Mr Dowling praised the TOP party boss and said he believed tall poppy syndrome was to blame for much of the opposition aimed at the outspoken billionaire.
“It’s the typical Aussie agenda with the tall poppy syndrome, and that’s where Clive flirts it to the hilt – he loves it,” Mr Dowling said.
“He’s got Australia’s fate at heart, he really has, that’s why I’m running – I’ve got faith in him.”
Mr Dowling will bring up the rear on the ballot paper after drawing 10th spot in the 10-man race for Leichhardt.
