Former Test cricketer enters election
Former Australian cricketer Nathan Bracken will stand as an independent candidate in the federal election.
“I will be running as an independent for the seat of Dobell for the Election and Lawrie McKinna will run in Robertson as an independent #teamcentralcoast,” Bracken tweeted on Monday.
McKinna is Gosford Mayor and general manager of football with the Central Coast Mariners.
The news comes after Bracken on Sunday night tweeted that he had “big news coming”.
The former Australian pace bowler announced his retirement in 2011 after a chronic knee injury.
He is currently suing cricket’s governing body over the management of an injury in 2007.
Dobell, on the NSW Central Coast, is held by former Labor MP Craig Thomson, who resigned from the party in May to contest it as an independent.
Thomson holds Dobell with a margin of 5.1 per cent, but is expected to lose.
Both McKinna and Bracken’s campaigns are being funded by millionaire businessman John Singleton, News Corp Australia reports.
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Singleton is said to be bankrolling “Team Central Coast” because he believes locals have been overlooked by Labor and the coalition.
“I know something has to be done before the Central Coast becomes a lost and forgotten opportunity,” Singleton is reported as saying.
He has numerous interests in the region including in properties, a thoroughbred horse stud at White and Gosford’s Bluetongue stadium.
McKinna and Bracken are being sought for comment.
