PETER PYKE Senate Candidate for Queensland
Family reasons forced Peter Pyke to leave school at 15. Peter says those reasons are well known to many Australians: “I dearly wanted to go to university and study science but there were five kids in the family, three younger than me. When my older brother came to me and said it was time we got jobs and helped support the family, I knew he was right. We both went into the construction industry and became electricians.”
At 15, Peter made sergeant in the Australian Army Cadets in Townsville and says being taught basic infantry skills and discipline at the hands of veteran regular soldiers was a privilege which he still values greatly and thinks many young Australians might also benefit from.
In his 20s, Peter Pyke got involved in his community when he joined Lifeline as a telephone counsellor. Coming from a background where men were gentle and women and children respected and well-treated, he was exposed for the first time to the hidden under-currents which are the endemic nature of violence against women and child abuse.
Hoping to play a larger part, at 25 Peter entered the Queensland police academy the year Commissioner Ray Whitrod resigned in disgust. So began a 16-year police career during which Peter rose to operational trainer, again made sergeant and fulfilled his dream of attending university (JCU and UQ). Peter specialised in the prevention of Violence against Women and put in place an award-winning unit within the Queensland Police Service named the Women’s Safety Unit.
Peter never once tolerated the then-widespread bashing by Queensland police of gay men and Aboriginal Australians and in Townsville was himself assaulted more than once by other officers when he chose to place his own body between abusive police and Aboriginal women and men prisoners to stop them from being physically abused.
Mr Pyke dangerously risked his police career in 1986 when he gave evidence in a Townsville Court against police colleagues on behalf of Aboriginal defendants he says were falsely accused and one of whom had also been savagely bashed in police custody. Thanks to Peter, all charges against the innocent parties were thrown out and costs awarded against police but senior police had determined that Peter’s time as a police officer was over. Fate intervened, though, and Peter’s job was rescued by an honourable assistant commissioner in charge of personnel who transferred Peter out of Townsville to the police academy in Brisbane where he became a law lecturer.
Peter Pyke came to prominence during the Fitzgerald Inquiry years as a police whistleblower and was labelled an ‘anti-corruption campaigner’ and ‘police reform crusader’ by Australian media. In 1989, at the invitation of the Citizens for Democracy, despite being a unformed police officer, Peter led the first legal street march post the Bjelke-Petersen era! What an honour! What an irony!
After the Inquiry, like others who took a stand, Peter’s police career suffered while corrupt and untalented ‘connected’ police were promoted and he realised his future lay outside policing. In 1992, Peter was elected as the first Labor MP for Mount Ommaney, formerly the safest Liberal seat in Queensland, but he was soon subjected to a robust campaign by local police to destroy his political career. In late 1993, backed by Keith Hamburger the then-Director General of Corrective Services who was a witness, Peter Pyke MP had his most senior local police disciplined for insulting him in a public meeting.
Within days, in what is a certain case of conflict of interest, the very same police acted to charge Peter with criminal charges he says were false, but which forced him through the embarrassment of a fifteen-month criminal trial as a politician, the trial characterised by perjury committed by a number of police and manufactured evidence placed before the Court.
Peter was found ‘Not Guilty’ of all charges and later jury members went out of their way to tell Peter’s family they could not understand why Peter had been charged. But the damage had been done. In the 1995 Queensland Election, Peter lost his seat by 400 votes. In 1997, then-Opposition Leader Peter Beattie personally apologised to Peter, admitting that the ALP knew Peter “had been framed by police” and had “done nothing to help” and that the result had been that “the Goss government lost office”. Peter has always maintained this was a significant contempt of parliament which altered the outcome of the 1995 Queensland state election.
Pyke says he might not have a snowflake’s chance in Hell, but should he be successful in getting elected to the Australian Senate, Regional Queensland will gain another Senator and a Senator’s office.
“If elected, my HQ will be in Toowoomba and I’ll get myself a mobile office and spend three months of the year out in the Regions giving remote Queenslanders access to a Senator’s office. That’s a promise!” he says.
“And, as when I was a State MP, my office will be a one-stop shop for all matters and no-one will be fobbed off.”
Mr Pyke says, “If I am elected to the Senate, it might mean I’ll hold the balance of power. Senators exercise a lot of influence and I am a candidate who does have the experience and know how to use that wisely for the benefit of all Queenslanders as well as our nation. That could mean a whole new ball game for all Queenslanders.”
Peter says it is time for politicians to lead and to engage in nation-building and he’d like to play a part in our clever country awakening to the opportunities that exist for Australia to become a super-power in terms of agriculture and food production, arts, banking, clean energy technologies, communications, democracy, education, ethics, finance, IT, industrial and international relations, law, niche manufacturing, sustainable mining, transport and tourism.
Mr Pyke said he is acutely aware of the lack of services and infrastructure for Queenslanders who live outside the SEQ and he would dedicate himself to changing that.
Peter Pyke has lived in Toowoomba for the past 11 years. He is a self-employed IT contractor and electrician who is also a writer and researcher into politics and police.
He is also the CEO of the new Republican Democrats centre party which just missed out on registration prior to the election.
The Republican Democrats were launched nationally on 22 June this year. They combine the moderate elements of both major parties with a fresh approach to politics and say they represent a viable low-risk option to voters seeking to place their Senate votes elsewhere than with the high-risk Greens.
Peter Pyke cheerfully says he is a ‘cultural philistine’ with crooked teeth, both a legacy of growing up in a ‘working poor’ migrant family in the 50s and 60s. He might not be a culture-vulture, but he does understand and support the contribution the Arts, Fashion and Sport make to community development, employment and our economy.
Just so, Peter Pyke understands upward mobility for all Australians begins with an excellent education and access to fairly-paid employment in a safe workplace. As a Labor state parliamentarian in Queensland in the 90s, Peter’s first acts were to establish a Chamber of Commerce and a Young People’s Council in his electorate.
“Want to create jobs for working Australians? Help small medium and large business grow. And that includes farming. Profit is not a dirty word,” he says.
Peter Pyke is a trained mediator comfortable in a boardroom, classroom, construction site, or in a union leader’s office. He wants to engage all sections of the nation in a collective effort to make our nation a world-leader.
Authorised by: Peter Pyke, 135 Russell Street, Toowoomba, 4350.
0427 388 598 pykie@republicandemocrats.org.au
www.republicandemocrats.org.au
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