TV presenter James Mathison to challenge Tony Abbott in election
Former Wake Up breakfast host James Mathison has announced he will challenge former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in his seat in the upcoming federal election.
The Daily Telegraph reports Mathison will run as an independent in the federal seat of Warringah with a social media-driven campaign aimed at turning the youth vote, in the northern beaches of Sydney electorate, against the ex-Prime Minister.
“We’ve done a whole lot of stuff on policy, on our perspective that the youth vote matters, that independents are more powerful than you think,” Mathison told the Daily Telegraph. “How Tony Abbott has lied over and over and over again and we’re going to roll them out in the coming days, just to get traction that way.”
The 38-year-old live in the electorate with his wife and two children and co-hosted Ten’s now defunct breakfast show, Wake Up! which was based out of Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club in Manly until it was a dumped by the network amid poor ratings in 2014.
Mathison, who also previously hosted Australian Idol has also been a prominent advocate for the rights of refugees and environmental issues, this morning tweeted: “Someone has to hold our leaders to account. Our politics is broken. Only a strong independent movement can change the system. Let’s do this.”
Mathison is not the only candidate with a media/marketing background challenging Tony Abbott in the upcoming federal poll with principal at Climate Communication Andrew Woodward running as the Labor candidate.
