Graeme Campbell | |
|---|---|
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forKalgoorlie | |
| In office 18 October 1980 – 3 October 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Mick Cotter |
| Succeeded by | Barry Haase |
| Leader of theAustralia First Party | |
| In office June 1996 – June 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1939-08-12)12 August 1939 Oxfordshire, England |
| Died | 16 August 2025(2025-08-16) (aged 86) Kalgoorlie,Western Australia, Australia |
| Nationality | English Australian |
| Political party | Labor (1980–1995) Independent (1995–1996; 2004–2021) Australia First Reform (1996) Australia First (1996–2001) One Nation (2001–2004) Liberal (2021–2025) |
| Spouse | Michele Lelievre |
Graeme Campbell (12 August 1939 – 16 August 2025) was an Australian far right politician. He represented the seat ofKalgoorlie in theHouse of Representatives from 1980 to 1998 as a member of theAustralian Labor Party.[1] He founded theAustralia First Party in 1996, before leaving in 2001 to joinOne Nation and later becoming a member of theLiberal Party.
Campbell was born on 12 August 1939 inAbingdon, Oxfordshire, England,[1] and immigrated to Australia as a child. He was educated atUrrbrae Agricultural High School inSouth Australia. In 1972, Campbell met his future wife,French-Australian Michele Lelievre, at a sheep station in theNullarbor Plain.[2]
Campbell worked in a range of occupations before entering federal parliament in October 1980 as theLabor member forKalgoorlie.[1]
Considered amaverick, he was an ardent supporter of the mining industry,[3] campaigned against theHawke government's introduction of a gold tax andcrossed the floor in 1988,[4][5] and was also a vocal critic ofthe Mabo decision regardingnative title in Australia[6] and sanctions on theapartheid regime in South Africa, and a proponent ofuranium mining.[7] In October 1993, and again in May 1995, he delivered a speech at the national seminar of theAustralian League of Rights, a far-right group for which he was believed to hold sympathies,[8] and in by-elections inMackellar andWarringah (safeLiberal seats on theNorthern Beaches of Sydney) in 1994, he urged electors to vote forAustralians Against Further Immigration (AAFI).[9]
After numerous run-ins with theLabor leadership and considerable media attention to his exploits, his Labor preselection for the seat of Kalgoorlie was revoked and he resigned from the Labor party in December 1995.[10] He continued to sit in parliament as an independent, and was reelected as an independent in the1996 election,[11] when he only received 35% of the primary vote, but defeated the Labor candidate, formerDeputy Premier of Western AustraliaIan Taylor, on Liberal preferences.
In June 1996, Campbell founded theAustralia First Party,[12] but was officially reckoned as an independent. He was defeated for reelection at the1998 federal election[11] after being eliminated on the seventh count.[13] Campbell blamed his loss on Australia First being eclipsed byOne Nation. In 2009, he claimed that, if not for the presence of a One Nation candidate, he would have picked up an additional 8.5% of the vote, which would have been enough to keep him in the race.[14]
He remained Australia First's leader until June 2001, when he left the party to stand (unsuccessfully) as a One NationSenate candidate inWestern Australia. In2004, he attempted unsuccessfully to regain his old federal seat as an independent.[11] He stood for the Senate in Western Australia at the2007 federal election as anindependent, but only achieved 0.13% of the vote.[15]
In 2021, Campbell joined theLiberal Party.[16] He opposed theIndigenous Voice to Parliament at the2023 referendum.[16]
Campbell died at a hospital inKalgoorlie, on 16 August 2025, after a stroke.[17][18]
In 1988 the Labor member for Kalgoorlie, Graeme Campbell (ALP, WA), crossed the floor to vote against the Hawke Government's Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (No. 5) 1988 which sought to introduce a gold tax. All WA's gold mining areas were located in the electorate of Kalgoorlie and Campbell claimed he had no choice but to represent the views of his electorate.[143] But Campbell also had 'a long history of disputes with his own side of politics' on other issues.[144] In November 1995 the ALP withdrew his endorsement as a candidate for the next election. Campbell sat as an Independent until he was defeated at the 1998 election.
I am opposed to a gold tax for reasons that I have already enumerated.
Campbell, while being an ALP member, was on the far right of the party, supporting uranium mining and opposing sanctions on apartheid South Africa and Aboriginal land rights. In the early 1990s he flirted with anti-immigration groups, and his constant differences with the Labor government saw him expelled from the ALP in 1995.
Kalgoorlie was held for Labor from 1980 until 1996 by Graeme Campbell, whose maverick ways eventually went too far for the ALP, and he was disendorsed just before the 1996 election after making one too many attacks on multiculturalism. He re-contested and won his seat as an Independent, but was easily defeated the second time around in 1998, running third with his preferences delivering the seat to the Liberal Party's Barry Haase.
His family posted on social media that he died early Saturday morning at Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital.
| Parliament of Australia | ||
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| Preceded by | Member forKalgoorlie 1980–1998 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
