Graeme Campbell (politician)

Graeme Campbell (13 August 1939 – 16 August 2025) was an Australian politician. He represented the seat of Kalgoorlie in the House of Representatives from 1980 to 1998 as a member of the Australian Labor Party.^[1] Campbell later founded the Australia First Party.

Graeme Campbell
Member of the Australian Parliament for Kalgoorlie
In office 18 October 1980 – 3 October 1998
Preceded by	Mick Cotter
Succeeded by	Barry Haase
Leader of the Australia First Party
In office June 1996 – June 2001
Preceded by	Position established
Personal details
Born	(1939-08-13)13 August 1939 Oxfordshire, England
Died	16 August 2025(2025-08-16) (aged 86) Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Nationality	English Australian
Political party	Labor (1980–1995) Independent (1995–1996) Australia First Reform (1996) Australia First (1996–2001) One Nation (2001–2004)
Spouse	Michele Lelievre

Early life

Campbell was born in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England,^[1] and came to Australia as a child. He was educated at Urrbrae Agricultural High School in South Australia. In 1972, Campbell met his future wife, French-Australian Michele Lelievre, at a sheep station in the Nullarbor Plain.^[2]

Political career

Campbell worked in a range of occupations before entering federal parliament in October 1980 as the Labor member for Kalgoorlie.^[1]

Considered a maverick, he was an ardent supporter of the mining industry,^[3] and crossed the floor on gold tax in 1988,^[4] and was also a vocal critic of the Mabo decision^[5] and sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa,^{[citation needed]} and a proponent of uranium mining.^{[citation needed]} In October 1993, and again in May 1995, he delivered a speech at the national seminar of the Australian League of Rights, a far-right group for which he was believed to hold sympathies,^[6] and in by-elections in Mackellar and Warringah (safe Liberal seats on the Northern Beaches of Sydney) in 1994, he urged electors to vote for Australians Against Further Immigration (AAFI).^[7]

After numerous run-ins with the Labor leadership and considerable media attention to his exploits, he was finally expelled from the party on 30 November 1995^[8] after addressing an AAFI meeting where he criticised Labor's immigration policies. He continued to sit in parliament as an independent, and was reelected as an independent in the 1996 election,^[9] when he only received 35% of the primary vote, but defeated the Labor candidate, former Deputy Premier of Western Australia Ian Taylor, on Liberal preferences.

In June 1996, Campbell founded the Australia First Party,^[10] but was officially reckoned as an independent. He was defeated for reelection at the 1998 federal election^[9] after being eliminated on the seventh count.^[11] Campbell blamed his loss on Australia First being eclipsed by One 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.^[12]

He remained Australia First's leader until June 2001, when he left the party to stand (unsuccessfully) as a One Nation Senate candidate in Western Australia. In 2004, he attempted unsuccessfully to regain his old federal seat as an independent.^[9] He stood for the Senate in Western Australia at the 2007 federal election as an independent, but only achieved 0.13% of the vote.^[13]

Personal life

Campbell died in hospital in Kalgoorlie on 16 August 2025, three days after his 86th birthday, after suffering a stroke.^[14][15]