High-profile Tasmanian businessman Michael Kent will run for the Jacqui Lambie Network in Lyons in the state election.
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Mr Kent’s candidancy will be announced on Sunday when the party leader reveals her ticket for the electorate.
Currently Glamorgan-Spring Bay Council mayor, Mr Kent was chief executive of Woolworths in Tasmania for two decades and has held lead several business and community boards.
Aged in his mid-70s, he said he was ready for a stint in politics, maintaining he wanted to continue to work seven days a week.
As well working within local government, Mr Kent owns a restaurant in Orford and has recently opened a tourism venture in Triabunna.
“Work has never been a burden to me – by and large, my job is my hobby and my hobby is my job,” he said.
“The same applies with politics. I would rather drop dead on the run than drop dead in a bloody rocking chair.
“Whilst I have the mental capacity and health, I’ll just keep working.”
Mr Kentg said there was a strong chance the party would get two candidates elected, one in Braddon and another - he hoped - in Lyons.
But he said he did not enjoy the prospect of a hung parliament and had personally campaigned against it in the past.
Mr Kent was a financial supporter of the Tasmanians for a Better Future group which ran a series of advertisements in the 2006 state election campaign, warning of the risks of minority government.
"My preference is for (a hung parliament) not to happen so a government can govern with a clear mandate but if that is going to happen, there should be an alternative to the Greens," he said.
“I don’t believe for one minute the Jacqui Lambie Network would stop supply.
“I don’t believe the party in its first year would put anyone up for ministerial roles.”
He said job numbers, health and educational services, and drug problems in regional Tasmania were key priorities for him.
Jacqui Lambie Network candidates for the upcoming election have expressed support for Labor’s policy to restrict poker machines to the state’s two casinos from 2023.
Mr Kent said he was undecided on the policy and would need to learn the true impact of likely job cuts.
The JLN has announced candidates previously in Braddon and Bass.
The Braddon candidates are Roslyn Flanagan, Rodney Flowers, Timothy Lovell, Gina Tims, and Colin Smith.
Bass candidates are Michael Hoult, Joshua Hoy, Gary Madden, and Daniel Groat.
