Charlotte Varcoe
MOUNT Gambier resident, Maddy Fry is the Independent candidate for the local seat in Federal Parliament after she put in an eleventh hour nomination on closing day on Thursday last week.
She joins eight others who will be vying for the position as Member for Barker, currently held by Liberal Tony Pasin, when the election is held on May 21.
Known for her involvement with the Limestone Coast freedom rallies throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms Fry said she put her name forward after receiving moral support from the AustraliaOne group.
She said she had contemplated putting her best foot forward for the seat six months ago but failed to find a political party which aligned with her own personal views.
“From there I travelled to Canberra for the rallies and spent a lot of time with Riccardo Bosi from AustraliaOne,” Ms Fry said.
“They are not a registered political party but share the same views as I do and from there I did a lot of work around the recent State election where I educated people on how to vote properly.”
She said at the last minute, AustraliaOne contacted supporters stating it would support those who wished to run in the Federal election as independents.
Ms Fry said she decided to give the election her best go after concerns around who was already running.
“I noticed we barely had anyone except those from the major parties on our ballot for Barker,” she said.
“I thought people would want the opportunity to try and vote out the major parties this year and we didn’t have enough names on the list to do that.”
Ms Fry recently announced the AustraliaOne policies that she aligned herself with; some of which she contributed to.
This included re-introducing the death penalty in Australia, amending the Australian Constitution to suit life in the 21st century, and banning full-term abortion Australia-wide.
“If someone is trialled and found guilty of crimes against humanity or genocide there wouldn’t be a person out there who would disagree with the death penalty,” Ms Fry said.
She said an example of such an event would be if it were found the Covid-19 vaccination caused mass deaths in the future with Ms Fry stating she believed there would not be a parent who had vaccinated their child who would not want to see those responsible face capital punishment.
In regards to the policy surrounding the Australian Constitution, Ms Fry said: “We are not in the 19th century anymore so we would want to adapt it to the 21st century.”
Ms Fry said she did not believe she would win the election, but hoped to educate people in the Barker electorate on her policies and “get the message” across.
