We hope it is no surprise that there is a federal election taking place on Saturday, 21 May. We asked the ten candidates for the hotly contested seat of Richmond a few pertinent questions about who they are and what they represent. Seven of the ten responded, which probably tells you something to begin with.
Herewith are the questions and below are the candidates’ truncated responses…
Questions:
1. How long have you lived on the Northern Rivers and why are you running?
2. What is your political experience? Are you, or have you been affiliated with a political party?
3. What is your experience outside politics?
4. What are your top three key issues?
5. What key strategies will you pursue to mitigate global warming?
Candidate response
Nathan Jones – Independent
1. I holidayed here from 1985 and moved here in 2017.
People want an honest politician to represent them. My business and economics skills will create genuine debate about important reforms. A strong crossbench of Independents in Canberra will force the major parties to debate bills rather than give all the power to the PM and the executive.
2. I’ve not worked for any politician and have never been a politician or a member of a political party.
3. I was an accountant in both the public and private sectors. I found being an accountant meant that many of the nations’ brightest minds were trying to minimise the taxes paid by the wealthy.
I have also been a teacher for 15 years (high schools and universities) teaching business, legal studies and economics.
4. Federation reform – we are living in a system designed by men in the 1890s. My economic model, after years of research, shows we waste $75 billion a year in excessive administration. We need to put that money into frontline services.
Cost of living issues, in particular the housing crisis.
A strong federal Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC). People need to know the government is working for the public interest not politicians’, lobbyists’, and donors’.
5. Two words: ‘Electrifying Everything’. Solar is now the cheapest form of electricity. We should subsidise domestic production and installation of solar panels, inverters and batteries. Wind farms and some pumped hydro will also help.
Monica Shepherd – IMOP
1. I grew up just over the border and visited the Northern Rivers frequently. I’ve lived here for 18 months. I’m running because this is an important area and the most beautiful community. It needs to be protected and cared for.
2. I’m new to politics, making me more eager and fervent to push ahead. I’m running with a grassroots political party, the Informed Medical Options Party (IMOP), that was started by Michael O’Neill who family friends have known for many years. IMOP really is an independent party – in relation to the freedom all candidates have to serve their communities – but united to help us all work together across Australia to help Australians have a good quality of life.
3. I have a degree in Complementary Medicine and I’m a mental health specialist. I’m passionate about connecting people to the environment and the environment to people; the two are intricately connected. Health on an individual level and community level has seen me run many community projects, be interviewed on many podcasts and write for many different publications.
4. Protect human rights.
Protect the environment.
Protect job security.
5. Start by scrutinising all government approved policies that negatively impact on the environment and their affect on all ecosystems.
David Warth – Independent
1. I have lived in the Northern Rivers for 22 years. I am standing because I absolutely love this place and I could not stand by and watch my community suffer and see our nation destabilised.
2. I have no previous political experience and I have never been affiliated to any political party.
3. I have a broad experience of life. I have worked in farming, professional fishing, commercial abalone diving, tourism, owned three scuba diving centres, filmmaking as a multi-award winning wildlife and environmental filmmaker.
4. Housing and homelessness.
Making the government accountable and stopping government overreach into our lives.
Restoring the economy and paying off our trillion dollar debt to provide employment and wage growth that will counter inflation and allow pensions and the NDIS to be increased.
5. Global warming has been over simplified and as important as it is to transition away from fossil fuels this is not the whole story. There are major environmental factors involved in climate change that are not being addressed.
I will propose that every home has solar power. I will look to clean wind and solar power generation. I will promote the location of geo-thermal sites. I will move to stop subsidies to, and ban, fracking altogether. I will improve public transport, and pathways for cycling.
I will promote localised economies, talk with vehicle manufacturers about more affordable electric vehicles and providing charging stations. I will promote energy saving construction innovations.
Gary Briggs – Liberal Democrats
1. Born in Murwillumbah, educated in Richmond, small business operator in Richmond. I am running in response to the increasing authoritarianism.
2. Political experience is nil, but I learn quickly. I am the endorsed candidate for the Liberal Democrats.
3. 30+ years optimising systems to make small business more efficient.
4. Restoring the proper functioning of our democracy to be a free country again. Reduce the impact of over regulation on the productive sector. Defend the people’s freedom to travel. The government does not have the right to reduce your liberty without absolute evidence that you are harming somebody else.
5. Before we destroy what we’ve worked for, for centuries, by cutting off everybody’s 24/7 electricity and hurting, possibly starving millions, I think we need more absolute evidence that the extreme end of IPCC forecasts will actually happen.
I checked our local dam and it is full. If we accept the midpoint of IPCC we are facing a slow moving event which is easily manageable.
What we do not do is allow the world to descend into a total control dictatorship on a global scale – being ruled over by elitist tyrants.
We definitely need to allow the investigation of the feasibility of the nuclear option in Australia.
Justine Elliot – Labor
1. I’ve lived on the NSW North Coast for thirty years, and my husband Craig and we have raised our family here. I’m passionate about our region, and I’m always fighting for a better deal for our community.
This election is crucial for Australia’s future. It’s time for a change – and only Labor can form government to deliver that change.
2. I’m proud to be your local Federal Labor MP and to have delivered more than $2 billion for local jobs, schools, health, roads and community resources for our community.
3. Before becoming a Federal MP, I was a frontline police officer, and have also worked as a Youth Justice Convenor with the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice.
4. We need to change the Government on 21 May to address a range of urgent issues in our community. These include addressing the cost of living, investing in more local housing, tackling climate change.
5. The only way to get real action on climate change is to change the government and vote Labor. Labor’s plan will create jobs, cut power bills, reduce emissions by boosting renewable energy, and kickstart $76 billion of investment. Labor is the only party ready to form government that has a fully detailed plan to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
Kimberly Hone – Nationals
1. I have lived in the Northern Rivers for many years with my family. I’m committed to a fresh approach to politics where consultation and cooperation replaces criticism and conflict.
2. I am a first-time candidate. I am with the Nationals because only they are exclusively focused on regional areas. An MP’s job must be getting things done for Byron families and communities.
3. As a local small business owner I know how to get things done. Volunteering with the SES and other community support organisations boosts my passion for our community. In my previous environmental role as an interpretational ranger for Queensland Parks and Wildlife I’ve learnt how to make positive choices for the future of our planet.
4. Stronger regional health, providing people and small businesses with cost of living and tax relief and more positive choices for all.
5. Banging on about global warming does nothing to fix it. The Nationals in NSW Government are building the north coast’s largest ever rooftop solar system on top of Byron Central Hospital. That positive choice is real and I’ll be pursuing more of that.
Mandy Nolan – The Greens
1. I’ve lived in the Northern Rivers for 32 years. I have spent decades volunteering time to community organisations to raise money to operate. I have seen first hand how under resourced we are. I have been writing about our housing crisis now for ten years. On the crossbench, I can be a voice for this region.
2. I’ve not previously been affiliated with a political party. I’ve been an independent voice involved in activism on social justice and environmental issues since my late teens. I joined the Greens not because I had an intention to enter politics but because their policy and platforms aligned with mine.
3. I am a comedian, an opinion writer, an artist, a teacher. I created a program for people with dementia and have taught over 2,000 people comedy. It’s about how to find your voice. Ironically, what I am doing now is about community voice.
4. The Greens don’t make up the key issues – they are informed by community: 1) Climate change 2) Housing, 3) The corrupting influence of political donations.
5. Net-zero by 2050 is an empty slogan for ‘someone else’s problem’. We don’t have another three years to waste. We need to shift electricity generation to renewables and storage. Increase electricity production to allow the electrification of all households, businesses, transport and industry. Move to negative emissions by protecting our forests and landscapes and reforming our agriculture.
See what the Page candidates say here
Funny how the Systems Analyst has figured out that Climate Panic is a scam and one of many dramas that the only solution for is to have a world government dictatorship.
But what would would we Systems Analysts know about how the system we live under works. Even though we are trained and get paid for analysing systems and figuring what’s actually happening in them.
Reality is far less exciting that whatever the ‘current freak out’ is this month.
If you don’t vote 1 for Gary Briggs, then please self deport to North Korea, you’ll be happier there.
Gary Briggs is not a Systems Analyst? he says he has experience in ‘optimising systems’ in small business. This ranges from reducing expenditure to fixing supply problems, has nothing to do with complex systems analysis.
Which is evident that he has no actual systems analysis, with his emotionally charged responses and misrepresentation of the IPCC findings. Complex systems require nuanced and complex solutions not emotions and catchphrases trying to elicit a reptilian brain response.
The Liberal party only has 44 seats in our 151 seat parliament, they had 45 prior to the last election where they lost a seat at Morrisons 2019 “Miracle” election win? Labor have 68 seats they are the major party, always have been, always will be, The Greens just 1, with 5 Independents! The Liberals are a minority Govt relying on the QLD LNP 23 and Nationals 10 seats to so desperately get any legislation passed! Any time you vote for the Liberals, the QLD LNP or Nat’s you are in fact voting for a minority hung parliament! That’s why the coalition never get any real legislation passed that the Nation so desperately requires. It’s a mess of opposing ideas, ideologies, the usual contrived rhetoric and always the corporate controlled coal lobbyists whose jobs depend on never agreeing to anything that may remove coal from any equation!!
A sysyems analyst that tries to simplify the whole plethora of problems created by climate change, down to how full a dam is in a La Nina year, is not much of a systems analyst
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He’s just telling us he is the anti-globalist guy and that he is not Q-Anon or anything.
If you want an explanation, there are appropriate venues for that.
Of for god’s sake Christian, world dictatorship government and that climate change is a scam. How about you and some of these candidates get off Facebook or whatever and come back to reality. Tell those on the Indian subcontinent experiencing temperature extremes as well as the current climate challenges here they are a scam, by who? Oh those billionaire climate scientists, a if.
I have offered to point you at some basic entry level info before. You are not interested in understanding why we have come to the conclusions we have or you would be keen to learn. How can you make a counter argument if you don’t know where we are coming from.
You are religious Rod. And like most religious people, you have a violent emotional reaction to encountering anything that contradicts your beliefs. We have listened to your side all our lives. We were indoctrinated at school with all of that. We understand your view.
I get the same thing with Q-Anon believers. Q-Anon is essentially a soap opera, much the same as the MSM. With the MSM there is always the latest thing that is going to end the world, with Q-Anon there is always the latest thing that is going to save the world, and both use the exact same rhetorical and narration tricks to keep their audience. Both groups swear they can see these things happening around them. To the rest of us, the world just keeps turning.
Start with this Rod. If it is a conspiracy theory that we all get censored off of all social media platforms, then why is your side freaking out that Elon is saying that he is going to let us back on Twitter? You keep thinking we are on facebook some how, we all got kicked off 5-6 years ago. Keep in mind we are not flat earthers, moon hoaxers, or any of that, they love presenting those guys as their opposition for obvious reasons. But you seem to have never heard us and we are not scarce.
I’m genuinely interested in what you think.
Christian, from the evidence you have presented in your daily posts I think your’e an angry old man who needs psychological help and remedial education to understand the world around him. Happy to help. Sorry I didn’t see your cry for help earlier.
Yes, there is a massive chunk of the population that has been silenced by social media. It seems WWIII has begun and it is indeed a war on truth. We should attempt not to make it a war on each other however it can be challenging because as you mentioned there is a mental level which is still very much living in fear and reacts to anything uncomfortable with aggression. That is acceptable by MSM and that is what is being fed. It is hard … but the meek shall inherit the Earth.. everyone here will grow into comapassion and understanding eventually.
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.” ― Bertrand Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World
In the end it is between Nolan and Elliott. If you vote for someone else please preference either of these two properly and make sure the Nats don’t sneak back in due to voting errors.
I agree absolutely Ron, but if miracles are in short supply this time and the Greens end up with the balance of power, I hope they will look to the experience of the last hung parliament. While it produced three of the most productive years of legislative reform, it allowed the Tories enough fodder in Labor’s so-called policy reversals to keep the LNP in power for the next nine years – despite the successful emergence of the religious hard right – and turned vital policy areas from any chance of bipartisanship to toxic culture wars.
Labor is the major party that has made genuine attempts this century at climate action, housing availability and tax reform. If anyone thinks those same people in the Labor party will be content to leave Jobseeker at such abysmal levels or not be working to bring the community along with reform across a range of policy areas, they really lack an understanding of the Australian political scene.
This is Australia, a predominantly reform shy, conservative electorate, ever ready to say something must be done but easy prey to hip-pocket scare campaigns from opportunistic pollies and a right wing media when it comes to the ballot paper.
There are pockets of very well heeled, well educated electorates where there are a critical mass who are less prone to the scare campaign – they know it either won’t affect their bottom line or have enough that they don’t care – who elect Greens. That’s fine but I hope those elected know now that to achieve any lasting reform you need to play a smart and agile game.
When your main strategy is to take a few targeted seats to increase your presence, rather than to achieve government, and stay there long enough to achieve worthwhile change, you can tell that target audience everything it wants to hear. I’ll be voting for Justine Elliot.
I thought ten people have their name on the ballot paper for Richmond. Whatever happened to Terry Patrick Sharples, the independent at number one on the ballot paper? Evidently depending on those people who start their numbering from the top. Tracey Bell-Henselin, the One Nation candidate at position eight, and Robert James Marks, the United Australia Party candidate at position ten, have both gone missing in action. Is this because they don’t anticipate many votes at eight and ten, or because they don’t have any policies worth talking about?
Steinburg and Co. really should be on that other platform ‘Off-my-face-book’, as Mark Twain said one should ‘never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience’, or even more apt, that it’s ‘better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt’.
Come on Mandy, bring it home.