FORMER Frankston MP Geoff Shaw will lead Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party at next month’s state election.
Palmer announced Shaw as the party’s Victorian leader last week. Shaw said at a press conference that he was running for office to remove Premier Daniel Andrews from power.
Shaw will stand for the Legislative Council in the Northern Victoria region. He was the member for Frankston between 2010 and 2014.
Shaw was elected in 2010 as a Liberal, but ended up finishing his term on the crossbench. In September 2013 he was charged with obtaining financial benefit by deception and one charge of misconduct in public office over the use of his parliamentary car, but the Department of Public Prosecutions later dropped the charges (“Surprise is a Shaw thing”, The Times, 4/10/22). In June 2014 he was suspended from parliament for 11 days.
In 2013, Shaw was a key figure in the replacement of Liberal leader Ted Baillieu with Denis Napthine. While in office, Shaw came under fire for his efforts to restrict the state’s abortion laws.
The United Australia Party contested the federal election with an anti-vaccine mandate platform. Despite a massive advertising spend the party won just one seat in the Senate, and failed to gain a seat in the lower house.
