Despite the Odds, AI Professor Tackles Labor Strongholds for the 4th Time

Academic Paul Darwen has run for politics four times, each time, as the underdog. Here, he explains why.

Multiple signs and volunteers promoting candidates at a pre-polling location for the 2025 federal Australian election in the seat of Rankin in the south of Brisbane, Australia on April 23, 2025. Daniel Y. Teng/The Epoch Times

Paul Darwen knows he doesn’t have a strong chance of taking the seat of Rankin off incumbent Treasurer Jim Chalmers, but still believes voters should have a choice.

And this is not the Liberal National Party (LNP) candidate’s first rodeo.

The 2025 federal election will mark the academic’s fourth shot as a candidate in a very safe Labor seat along the southern outskirts of Brisbane bordering Logan City.

Growing up on a mango farm in North Queensland, Darwen studied math and physics before completing a PhD in artificial intelligence (AI).

He’s been a researcher and a key player in a number of start-ups, and is now an associate dean at James Cook University.

His first electoral tilt was in 2020 against state Transport Minister Mark Bailey (securing 30.6 percent of the primary vote), then in 2022 he entered the federal arena against Treasurer Chalmers for the first time (securing 29 percent of the vote).

In 2024, he contested the seat of Woodridge held by Queensland state Treasurer Cameron Dick (winning 21 percent of the vote), and this time, he will be running against Chalmers again who holds Rankin on a 43.9 percent primary vote, and 59.1 percent after preferences.

Paul Darwen, associate dean of IT at James Cook University’s Brisbane campus and the Liberal National Party candidate for Rankin. Courtesy of Paul Darwen

Rather than get parachuted into a safe LNP seat, Darwen sticks by his local area saying every voter should be given a choice. He adds that there’s no need for him to “feather his nest” and climb the political ladder.

“In the American state of Illinois, in state elections, more than half of voters get a ballot paper with only one choice on it, because the two major parties don’t bother contesting a party that’s safely held by the other side,” he told The Epoch Times.

“And I think that’s terrible for democracy. It means people feel that they’ve been abandoned. They become cynical.”

Not Waiting for Someone Else to Do It

According to the Australian Electoral Commission, to have a chance of winning Rankin would need at least a 9 percent swing away from Labor.

Darwen says its also about taking the initiative.

“You hear people complain a lot about politics, and often what you hear is that, ‘Someone should do this,’ or ‘Someone should do that.’ And I’m thinking: who is this person called ’someone?’

“There is no ’someone.' There’s just you and me, and if you’re not doing it, then it’s not going to get done.”

But he also concedes that support for the major parties has continued to drop.

“I’ve heard it compared with a choice between broccoli flavoured ice cream and brussels sprouts flavoured ice cream,” Darwen says.

Public Service Needs Occasional Trim

Darwen is also interested in issues like examine whether public service sectors are inflated.

He said historically taxpayer-backed bureaucracies have been very difficult to shrink or remove, referencing the “Peter principle,” where individuals are promoted to higher positions even if they do not possess the suitable skills.

“Public servants are only human, and they tend to want to do a better job, and to do a better job needs more people. So the Peter principle asserts that the work expands to fill the time available,” Darwen said.

He pointed to the American Spruce Corporation.

“Remember when the United States got involved in World War I in 1917 and at the time, aircraft had a lot of spruce wood in them,” he said.

“So the U.S. Congress established a U.S. government-owned corporation called the American Spruce Corporation. Their job was to plant spruce trees, manage spruce plantations, so that World War I aircraft would have enough spruce.”

The corporation was only shut down in the 1980s under the Reagan administration, even after spruce as a material went out of fashion half a century earlier.

13 Million Spare Bedrooms

Darwen has a practical idea he believes could help solve the nation’s burgeoning housing crisis.

He quotes figures from a recent survey that revealed Australia has 13 million empty bedrooms not being used—enough to house half the population.

In a time of crisis, it would seem logical to address the issue standing in the way of utilising those spaces.

“If you asked some old widow who’s rattling around in her empty four-bedroom house, ‘Why don’t you sell up and downsize?’ She‘ll tell you ’stamp duty.’ ‘It’s cheaper for me to just live in this four-bedroom house until I die than sell it and pay the big stamp duty to downsize,’” Darwen said.

In an effort to encouraging more down-sizing, state and territory governments offer seniors discounts on stamp duty taxes on property purchases after selling their original home.