Jason Costigan

Jason Noel Costigan (born 13 June 1971) is an Australian radio commentator and former politician who was a Member of Parliament in the Queensland Legislative Assembly and leader of the North Queensland First party. Costigan was previously an independent politician and rugby league commentator. He was a member of the Liberal National Party (LNP) until being expelled from the party in February 2019. He had been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for Whitsunday until 2020, first being elected in 2012 after defeating Jan Jarratt at that year's state election.^[3]

Jason Costigan
Leader of North Queensland First
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 November 2019[1]
President	Richard Filewood
Preceded by	Position established
Shadow Assistant Minister for North Queensland
In office 10 May 2016 – 14 December 2017
Leader	Tim Nicholls Deb Frecklington
Preceded by	Andrew Cripps
Succeeded by	Dale Last
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Whitsunday
In office 24 March 2012 – 6 October 2020
Preceded by	Jan Jarratt
Succeeded by	Amanda Camm
Personal details
Born	(1971-06-13) 13 June 1971 (age 54) Mackay, Queensland, Australia
Political party	North Queensland First (since 2019)
Other political affiliations	Independent (2019) Liberal National (until 2019)
Education	St Mary’s Catholic Primary School Mackay State High School[2]
Occupation	Rugby league commentator

Broadcasting career

Costigan's broadcasting career began in northern Queensland in the late 1980s and he began calling rugby league in 1987 for regional television in Queensland.^[4] He later joined New Zealand's SKY Network Television as their main NRL commentator and served in the role until the end of the 2010 season.^[5][6]

Costigan has also worked as a media manager for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Bradford Bulls and was an advisor to the Central Queensland NRL bid. He left his role as project co-ordinator for the NRL bid team to spend more time with his family.^[7]

Political career

Costigan worked as an adviser to the Sports Minister in the Howard Government and a media adviser to Senator Ian MacDonald.^[8]

He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for Whitsunday, having defeated Jan Jarratt at the 2012 state election.

Costigan was suspended from the LNP in January 2019 after a complaint alleged that he harassed a woman.^[9] He denied the charges, but was formally expelled from the party by the executive on 1 February 2019.^[10] In April 2020, the woman withdrew her complaint and offered an "unreserved apology" to Costigan.^[11]

In September 2019, Costigan founded the North Queensland First party which aims for Northern Queensland statehood.^[12]

He contested his Whitsunday seat in the 2020 Queensland state election as the sitting candidate but lost to Amanda Camm. He received 9.37% of the first preference votes.^[13]