He ran as an independent in 2017 and now Craig Scriven is back again to run as an independent in 2020.
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Mr Scriven ran in 2017 to have a say on the important matters and though he finished last of six candidates with 342 votes, he running again for "consistency".
"People in the street know who I am by now especially after the last election," Mr Scriven said.
"Remarkable the number of people who said 'you got my number two vote' and in my jovial way I said 'it would have been nice if it had been number one'."
Mr Scriven said it was a given that incumbent Robbie Katter would run again but Labor have changed their candidate and LNP were likely to change their candidate too, though they have not announced it yet.
"The Labor candidate's interview was just a repeat of the last election's speech that when we win I'll have direct access to the premier," he said.
"But when you lose you don't have access to the premier you are just a humble backbencher."
Mr Scriven is a boilermaker with experience in mining but he also has a strong agriculture background.
"What I'll bring if elected is not new policies but the ability to negotiate," he said.
"With the incumbent it's a big stick or nothing and Cross River Rail was the best example, if people who had balance of power supported it with conditions, say five or 10 percent to the North West it would have been ample for road or rail in these district, but we got nothing."
Mr Scriven said mental health was his main policy.
"Our hospital has a wonderful mental health ward but we haven't got a bed, so people in crisis go to the ED and then they allocate a security guard to be with that patient and I'm sorry that's not good enough," he said.
"We have access to a house near the hospital, Queensland Health owns and it wouldn't take much to put two staff members in there."
Mr Scriven said more attention needed to paid to allocating where government spent money on infrastructure.
"We've got an irrigation scheme going at Hughenden which is at the top of the catchment rather than in the lower lands so we are trying to catch the head waters not the tail waters, that's going to make the water extremely expensive to use," he said.
Mr Scriven said mining exploration was going forward but more needed to be done for contract workers in smaller companies.
"They are contracting to a contractor who isn't actually paying them and they are not being paid for three months and going broke," he said.
"It's not so much a legislation change that needs to happen, there needs to be a pool by the contracting companies that people employed by them can draw upon when they haven't been paid."
Mr Scriven said the issue he had with labour hire companies was that it should be a short-term situation.
"People working for labour hire companies in the same role for three years well that to me is a permanent position," he said,
"I know Glencore have made labour hire companies offer holidays and sick pay which is how it should be."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
