Lyle Shelton was a National party candidate - 2006 QLD state election

Campaign headquarters, 2006

The link between the Australian Christian Lobby and the Liberal/National Coalition is now complete. Lyle Shelton going so far as to run as a candidate in Toowoomba in the 2006 Queensland state election. After failing at that he spent time being a political advisor to Barnaby Joyce. No wonder the Lieberals give him a voice on the national stage, despite the ACL in 2016 having only 11 full time staff.

Amazing what a bit of digging can turn up. First there was this synopsis of Shelton's life advertising his last month's speaking engagement at "Life City Church" against marriage equality: 

About Lyle Shelton
A journalist by profession, Lyle began his career working for regional and farming newspapers in Queensland. He was later appointed Group Commodities Editor for Rural Press Limited, based in Melbourne, Victoria. After six years in journalism, Lyle returned to his home town of Toowoomba to serve as youth pastor at Toowoomba City Church.


In 2000, he was elected to the Toowoomba City Council and was re-elected in 2004. He contested to the 2006 Queensland State election as a candidate for the National Party but was not successful. After a short stint as a political advisor to Queensland Senators Ron Boswell and Barnaby Joyce, Lyle was approached to apply for the position of Chief of Staff at the Australian Christian Lobby. In 2007 he and his family moved to Canberra where he served in this position for the next six years. In 2013 he was appointed Managing Director of ACL. Lyle is married to Wendy and they have four children. Life City Church

I'd heard bits and pieces about him being a National party candidate, so I dug further. He contested the Toowoomba seat in the 2006 state election. Above is a picture outside his campaign headquarters which I found on Flickr.

Also, the ABC Queensland election site for 2006 has a description of both candidates:

Main Candidates 

Sitting Labor MP Kerry Shine was a local solicitor before his election to Parliament. He was the Labor candidate in this normally unwinnable seat in 1998, and probably did not expect to win at his second attempt in 2001, and may even have been surprised to increase his margin by more than 5% in 2004. His National Party opponent is Toowoomba City Councillor Lyle Shelton, who was serving his second term on the Council until forced to stand down by the Beattie government's law that prevents sitting councillors holding their seats while running for state Parliament. He played a prominent part in the 'No' case at the recent Toowoomba sewage re-cycling referendum. ABC

So there you have it. Lyle Shelton was a card carrying member and candidate of the QLD National party. I do wonder after that, is Shelton still a member of the National Party? Whatever the case is, he's definitely not an independent voice but a stooge of the far right in the gov.