Queensland Senate Candidate for 2007

To get to the Senate, you gotta bruise a little
Shannon Molloy | Brisbane Times November 13, 2007 - 4:05AM

A Queensland independent Senate candidate who subjected himself to being punched, bashed and crash tackled for a campaign video is hoping the display will win him some votes in the upcoming federal election.

James Baker doesn't have the budget that most of his political party backed competitors enjoy, so getting his name out there takes a little imagination.

Throughout the one minute clip, uploaded four days ago to the popular video sharing website YouTube, Mr Baker pledges to roll with the punches for his beloved state.

He also takes a hit to the head with a baseball bat and basketball before being crash tackled by a burly bloke wearing a State of Origin football jersey.

"I know that when I go to Canberra, I'm going to cop a few hits from time to time," he says in the video, seconds before the basketball smacks him in the head.

During the three hour shoot, made possible with the help of a couple of Griffith University students, Mr Baker reckons he was punched about four times.

"I used to box as a kid, so I know that I can cop a slug on the chin form a boxing glove."

The punch scene required a couple of takes because the guy wearing the glove was initially a little hesitant about his job.

"He started out giving me baby taps, and I was saying that to look any good and not appear hammy, he would have to really give it to me."

The aim of the video was to demonstrate that despite being an independent, Mr Baker is tough enough to tackle Canberra.

"It had to look real, and it was, but obviously we took some measures to make sure I wasn't injured - not even my pride."

Mr Baker sets off on a tour of Queensland today, leaving little time for further YouTube ventures.

However in the past, the former National Party member has been a fan of the site and published several clips on topics from broadband to terrorism.

"There are certainly people who are contacting me in the wake of that video; I've had a good response.

"A friend of mine suggested for the next one that I'd have to ramp it up and get hit by a couple of cars, trucks and buses but I'm not sure how I would work that one."

The tech-savvy candidate also runs a MySpace and Facebook site, and while his predominantly conservative and rural supporters aren't likely to log on, he believes it's important to have an online presence.

"When you're an independent you don't have a huge budget - if I did, and I had a whole team of people to help me, I'd get in the studio and do another four or five.

A group of Queensland independents will co-launch their campaigns in Brisbane today, hoping strength in numbers will provide the attention usually afforded only to the major parties.

The group of 10 independents will jointly launch their election campaigns during a forum at Carindale, on Brisbane's southside.

Initiated by army veteran James Baker, the group is vying for seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate at the upcoming poll.
Mr Baker, a former National Party member turned independent, said it was difficult for independents to gain much-needed public attention.

"There are some fantastic quality people who are standing and they are not aligned to a party and they are generally denied a voice because they are drowned out by the major parties,'' Mr Baker said.

"The major parties have stacked the odds so much in favour of themselves and it is so difficult to break in.

"You have got to try and find ways around the roadblocks that they're putting in the way of the independents and anybody else.''

Mr Baker, whose fallout with the Nationals was sparked by his opposition to the sale of Telstra, said independents provided a powerful voice against the political cartel dominated by the coalition and Labor.

"You tell me that people like Bob Katter and Brian Harradine and Tony Windsor and Peter Andren have not had a huge influence in their own right on the Australian political landscape,'' he said.

"Many Australians would be able to name independents before they could name 90 per cent of the backbenchers in federal Parliament.''

Candidates expected at the Hotel Carindale launch at noon today include Dale Chorley for the seat of Blair, Chris Coyle (Forde), Cate Molloy (Wide Bay), Paul Shears (Moncrieff) and David Montgomery (Fadden).
Senate candidates include David Couper, Louise Fitzgerald-Baker, Richard Hackett-Jones, Leo DeMarchi and James Baker.

Meanwhile, the Australian Electoral Commission will publish how-to-vote cards registered by candidates on its website tomorrow.

A QUEENSLAND Senate candidate and former Nationals staffer has called for radical Muslims to be incarcerated in the case of a terrorist attack in Australia.

Independent candidate James Baker, a former army major who also worked as an adviser to former Queensland Nationals leader Mike Horan, says he wants people deemed as "radical" Muslims to be interned following a terrorist attack in the interest of national security.

The precedent for the radical measure, he says, dates backs to World War II when those classified as "enemy aliens" - predominantly Germans and Italians - were incarcerated.

He said the measure would not amount to racial profiling but would prevent a copycat attack.

"In the event of a terrorist attack coming to Australia, many of these people who are deemed at the highest level of threat to national security could be taken off the streets," Mr Baker said.

"The current government has been known to take some very bold and innovative responses to national security and border security and I think we are in a time where similar bold approaches are needed."

Mr Baker said his stance would not be popular but believed his position would gain support following an attack.

"I don't think the Australian community would accept that right now, but I'm quite sure they will accept that when the first bombs go off in Australia, if indeed that is what happens," he said.

Queensland Council of Civil Liberties president Michael Cope blasted Mr Baker's suggestion as "outrageous".

"To incarcerate groups of people on the basis of their ethnicity is just a gross violation of fundamental human rights ... where does it stop?" Mr Cope said

"It just undermines the fundamental premise of our legal system and our democracy, that people should be imprisoned only on the basis of being convicted of some offence."

There are two perennial topics in an election year which, despite their importance, only attract occasional commentary.

One is the Senate election, and the other is whether the Nats will “all be rooned”. That question has popped up recently, raised by former Nat and Queensland Senate independent candidate James Baker.

The two are very much connected, particularly with Senator Ron Boswell’s bid for re-election in Queensland, where he faces being squeezed between the Libs and a Labor vote that will rise enough to make four Coalition seats highly unlikely. Competition for the sixth seat will be fierce, with the Democrats pulling out all stops to defend Andrew Bartlett, the Greens sniffing their first chance of Queensland victory, and Family First and James Baker competing for Boswell’s base vote.

Little has been heard from the Nats this year, in contrast to last year’s conniptions over Barnaby Joyce and Julian McGauran. Mark Vaile claimed credit for road spending in the election, even if none of it would cut in until 2009. AWB has been arranged to suit the Nationals’ proclivities. But Ron Boswell, at least in the mainstream media, has kept a low profile since he defeated Baker for pre-selection.

No doubt this demonstrates that the nine staffers Boswell was revealed to have at Senate estimates are all busy beavering away on public business not on campaigning for the venerable senator’s re-election.

The most recent Senate voting intentions poll is a survey by Morgan taken over March and April. The Nats’ vote in Queensland was holding at 6%, which would put them in contention for the sixth spot, though a very low vote of 25% would suggest not much of a Liberal surplus to distribute, and would probably indicate a win for the Democrats or the Greens on Labor preferences.

The Nats may well be 'rooned', at least as far as their Senate leader is concerned. The lower house is another story -- and deserves another story. Baker seized on the Nats’ 3% number in the latest Newspoll to pronounce Boswell dead in the water.

There are difficulties in transposing lower house polls to the Senate, and grounds for believing that the Nats’ vote would be higher in the upper house as it’s a statewide vote, and the Coalition agreement means they only run in a minority of seats. Polls also routinely understate the Nats’ vote, for a range of sampling and respondent reasons.

But it is interesting to note that over the same period as the Morgan poll sampled, the Nats’ primary declined in Newspoll, more or less in synch with the Libs’ vote. This would suggest that Boswell’s “strong Coalitionist” message might spell his doom. With a surging Labor Senate vote and fierce competition for his seat, he might need a rabbit of his own to emerge from an Akubra somewhere.

An Army Officer with 21 years experience with the Infantry will be pursuing a seat in the Senate as an independent representing Queensland in the upcoming Federal election. Currently Public Relations advisor to 1st Division at Brisbane’s Gallipoli Barracks, Major James Baker is passionate about the importance of the Senate.

“The Senate was designed as the States’ house, to represent State interests, but the major parties treat it as either a rubber stamp if the Government controls it, or an opportunity to grandstand if the Opposition controls it,” Major Baker said.

Major James Baker is one of only three candidates in Australia, and the only one in Queensland, with extensive ADF experience. He believes that Australia lives at peace today because in the past we have shown we will stand up to international bullies and tyrants.

“We must be prepared to defend our way of life and to stand up for those around the world who cannot defend themselves against oppressors,” Major Baker said.

“I believe the War on Terror is a real war that our troops are fighting right now, and they deserve our full support.”

Major Baker’s Army career commenced when he joined as a 19 year-old Reservist soldier. He has served as a full-time and part-time officer in units and regiments around the country, including the Royal Queensland Regiment, Norforce and the Royal New South Wales Regiment.

Furthermore, he has served in Somalia and East Timor as well as the Australian Headquarters, Middle East during the Iraq War and the War on Terror.

Aside from his Army career, Major Baker has worked as a television journalist and been an adviser to several Coalition Cabinet ministers. In Canberra in the late 1990s, Major Baker worked in the office of National’s leader Tim Fischer and then John Anderson. In 2004, he was part of the successful Nationals team that saw Barnaby Joyce elected to the Senate.

Major Baker lives in Brisbane with his wife Louise and their three young daughters.

A former Nationals staffer has warned the party faces annihilation if the polls flow through to the federal election.

James Baker lost a bid for Nationals preselection to Queensland Senator Ron Boswell late last year and is now standing as an independent.

The latest Newspoll gives the Nationals a primary vote of just 3 per cent and Mr Baker has told ABC Radio's PM that level of support would destroy the party.

"That would spell electoral annihilation - genuine annihilation, not just rhetorical annihilation," he said.

"We talk about John Howard not having any more rabbits in the hat, well the National Party rabbit has died of myxomatosis long ago."

Nationals Queensland director Brad Henderson has told PM Mr Baker should be focusing his attack on Labor.

"I think this fellow's got to ask, what is he really trying to achieve by splitting the conservative vote?" Mr Henderson said.

"He claims to be a conservative candidate but he's out there acting as [Opposition Leader] Kevin Rudd's best friend, trying to see the end of the Coalition Government."

ELIZABETH JACKSON: A Former National Party staffer and candidate has warned that the Nationals face annihilation at the next election.

Today's Newspoll indicates that the Nationals vote has hit a low of just three per cent, half of the six per cent they polled at the last election.

On those numbers the party would be reduced to a shell and its prominent Queensland Senator Ron Boswell would not be returned.

James Baker is now standing as an independent in Queensland after failing to beat Senator Boswell for Nationals pre-selection.

He spoke to Gillian Bradford who filed this report from Canberra.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: Over the last couple of years there' s been a lot of talk that the Democrats could be headed for oblivion come election day.

It's not quite that dire for the National Party, but certainly the recent string of polls has suggested the party room of 17 could lose quite a few chairs at the next election

JAMES BAKER: The real sleeper issue in the polls today is the Nationals, they're sitting on three per cent. And for them that would spell electoral annihilation, genuine annihilation, not just rhetorical annihilation.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: James Baker has been an adviser to former National Party leaders John Anderson and Tim Fischer. He challenged Queensland Senator Ron Boswell for pre-selection at the end of last year but lost, and now he's running as an independent

JAMES BAKER: When Ron Boswell stood for preselection last year, he said he was going to put the party first. I said I was going to put Queensland first. They chose him. Now, they are wearing the consequences of choosing the party first.

Since Ron Boswell has been at the head of the National Party in the Senate, they have lost 75 per cent of their vote - they've gone from 28 per cent of the vote in Queensland in the Senate to 6.6.

Something is wrong!

If a corporation lost 75 per cent of its market share, it would sack the management. But the National Party has never acted.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: And why should people not think this is anything other than sour grapes from you after not being preselected?

JAMES BAKER: Well the easy thing to do is to sit back and play the political game, and tell people what they want to hear, and tell them that it will all be okay.

That's not what I did. I decided to go out and put my money where my mouth is, to stand by my convictions that you cannot be a successful political force in Australia if all you do is tell people what they want to hear and just roll over and let the major party tickle your tummy so that you can stand in office and be part of the government, but really not stand up on anything that's important.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: Now you say the Nationals haven't really stood up to the Liberals in the Coalition, haven't really represented their constituents - but say on the issue of the single desk, the Nationals got exactly what they want, much to the disappointment of the Liberals.

JAMES BAKER: Really the only reason the Nationals have stood up on anything by and large has been the presence of Barnaby Joyce. He is the man in the National Party that has got the backbone to stand up.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: Do you think Senator Boswell himself is in danger at this coming election?

JAMES BAKER: Well if those poll results go through the election, it's good night Irene. We talk about John Howard not having any more rabbits in the hat, well the National Party rabbit has died of myxomatosis a long time ago.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: The Queensland Director of the Nationals, Brad Henderson, thinks James Baker has an axe to grind.

BRAD HENDERSON: Oh look, it's clear that the Coalition is the underdog as we approach this coming election. But I think this fellow's got to ask: what is he really trying to achieve by splitting the conservative vote? He claims to be a conservative candidate, but he's out there acting as Kevin Rudd's best friend, trying to see the end of the Coalition Government.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: Well his real message is that with Ron Boswell at the head of the Nationals ticket the Nationals have gone from 28 per cent of the Queensland vote to 6.6 at the last election. He's saying the party has to be accountable for that.

BRAD HENDERSON: Oh look, I think writing off the Nationals is one of those old media chestnuts. You know, if this fellow was a real conservative, he would be out there attacking Labor.

And at a time when we’ve got so much work to do towards re-election and towards showing the people of Australia what a vision that we have to take the country forward and consolidate the gains we've made, it's such a curious thing that here we have a former Nationals staffer who's spent years writing policies for this Government, years promoting the policies of this Government, suddenly now turning around and trying to hand victory to Labor.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Queensland Director of the National Party, Brad Henderson, Gillian Bradford with that report.

The Iraq war is a necessary stand against the evil of terrorism; immigration should be controlled, particularly to ensure we do not undermine at home what our soldiers are fighting for abroad; economic reform is the mantra of out-of-touch elites, although Work Choices is important; the sale of Telstra was wrong; and the "Canberra Nationals" have sold out the ordinary Queenslanders.

Yet the speaker does not fit the image. James Baker is 39, a baby-faced former media and political professional, an army infantry major and father of three young girls. And he is running for a quintessential old man's club, the Senate.

Mr Baker was Barnaby Joyce's running mate for the Senate in 2004, and spent much of last year driving across Queensland expanses seeking preselection support for this year.

But the Nationals rejected him in favour of the 25-year veteran Ron Boswell and now he is on that vain-glorious political quest, running as an independent.

Senator Joyce has told him he is mad to try, and his own political experience - he worked for four federal ministers and one Queensland opposition leader - means he knows there is as much luck in the preference flows as there is personal appeal.

But a hard study of the numbers also tells Baker there are hundreds of thousands of "lost" Nationals voters out there, wanting to hear from someone like him.

The vote for the Nationals when his opponent Senator Boswell first ran in 1983 was 28 per cent; Senator Joyce scored 6 per cent.

"It's about finding those couple of hundred thousand people who have left the Nationals, and saying to them, 'Why, why did you leave?"'

If Labor is populated by the idealistic children of the Whitlam era, Baker represents the next generation, politicised by a reaction to former Labor leader Paul Keating.

Mr Baker says unemployment disillusioned many of his age in the rural and regional towns of NSW where he grew up.

"There is no doubt that Paul Keating very strongly influenced my political views. I was very much enraged by his 'this is the recession we had to have'," he says.

In Canberra in the late 1990s, Mr Baker learned about practical politics in the office of Nationals leader Tim Fischer and then John Anderson.

Too many Nationals feel "comfortable" in office. "It's not comfortable to go into the joint partyroom and stand up against the likes of Alby Schultz or Bill Heffernan and quite a few vocal others ... they will get up and take a pick handle to you in verbal terms," Mr Baker said.

Many of the voters he now seeks are former One Nation supporters, those who voted for Pauline Hanson because, he argues, she reflected a perception of being swamped by Asian migrants.

Baker insists he does not care where migrants come from but they have to have be the right "mix", economically and culturally.

"We are currently in a war with Islamic extremism, so you have got to be very careful about the people you let in to make sure you are not undermining what you are sending your soldiers overseas to achieve," he said.

Serving briefly in the Middle East and in East Timor has only strengthened his view that the Iraq war is part an important struggle for the nation's future.

"If Iraq has become a magnet for terrorists ... I would prefer the magnet in the Middle East than in our region.

12. Another Queensland candidate putting state above party

By Mark Bahnisch

While political circles are abuzz with talk of Ruddslides and any number of scandalgates, as usual in election years, the vital election for the Senate is receiving little attention from pundits. Though the government has been viewed as favourite to hold on to an absolute or blocking majority, this outcome is by no means certain. Particularly if, as in Queensland this week, a potentially strong conservative candidate emerges to fragment the government's core vote.

Queensland Nationals policy director and Army officer James Baker has resigned from his party position and will contest the Senate poll as an independent. Baker, an ally and friend of Barnaby Joyce, contested pre-selection against Nationals Senate Leader Ron Boswell last year and lost, in a contentious vote where Boswell pulled out all stops, including arranging an appearance before delegates of Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen.

I interviewed Baker on behalf of Crikey. He pinpoints the motivation for his decision as being a disaffection with the closeness of the "Canberra Nationals" to the Liberals, and their strategic ineptitude. Baker describes Vaile's leadership as an attempt to "manage the party into a gradual demise" and dismisses his differentiation strategy, adopted after the defection of Julian McGauran, as a "Jedi mind trick". He points to the loss of 50% of the Nationals' Queensland Senate vote since Howard was elected as his trump card to demonstrate the failings of Boswell and other federal Nationals.

Baker's appeal to the electorate is premised on a belief that Joyce's record in the Senate shows that Queenslanders will support a candidate who will put the interests of the state above that of his party. He describes the major parties at federal level as "political cartels" and believes that his candidacy will have appeal across the state to disillusioned conservative voters. He argues that the failure of the federal National leadership to represent its constituency bleeds votes away to the Liberals as supporters ask, "why vote for the puppet when you can have the puppetmaster?"

Baker doesn't minimise the obstacles to running a successful campaign, but believes that his independent effort can be financed. He points to the success of Brian Harradine as a precedent, and Fielding's election as an example of a non-major party candidate leveraging a quota through preferences. Baker has not yet considered preference deals.

There's no doubt that Baker's candidacy will shake up the dynamics of the Senate race. He offers a much more mainstream and serious alternative than Pauline Hanson's vanity campaign to disaffected conservative voters. Whichever way the House of Representatives vote goes, the Senate election just got a lot more interesting.

Like Joyce, Baker has a colourful way with words, and doesn't mince them. He has a political track record federally, having worked for Tim Fischer and John Anderson. He was also Joyce's running mate in 2004.

What does Barnaby Joyce think?

"Frankly, Barnaby thinks I'm nuts. But people have said the same about him," says Baker.

Thousands of motorists see James billboards every day on the corner of Logan and Kessels Road at Garden City Shopping Centre and on Old Cleveland Road, Belmont. Encourage your friends to help James and Louise Make Election Day Independents Day!

James is on the road to let people know he is standing as a candidate who will be Queensland's man in Canberra, not Canberra's man in Queensland. Cyclone James is currently on tour, heading up the Queensland Coast.

Australian Senate Candidate

James Baker

Putting Queensland First

Queensland Senate Candidate for 2007