You’re a new face to the political world, what motivated you to run?
If you go back in history over the past 6 years or so with the Labor Party I’ve had an absolute gutful of the way our beautiful country has been trashed. I’m sick of the lies, I’m sick of the deceit, I’m sick of the way spending is completely out of control. The budget deficit is going up and up and up. And I just felt when I saw Clive Palmer on the TV, and he was calling for people to join the party, I was convinced that I was pretty noisy on the soap box anyway, it was time I should stand up and do something for our great country and so that’s what led me to where I am today.
What are your biggest issues in the electorate?
Look I think certainly as far as the cost of living concerns everybody, the carbon tax is a big issue. Climate change, and the sciences around climate change, is a huge issue especially for people who are living close to the water. Waterfront properties – their values are going down, their insurance is going up. Jobs are a real concern to this area because unemployment is quite high and we want to try and bring back some of the revenue that is created in this area to this area so we can create jobs and so that we can create that infrastructure that is badly needed. You have only got to go for a trip out to the Hunter Valley, for example, and drive around the roads, they are absolutely disgraceful. Yet there is an awful lot of revenue generated from that area through tourism, the beautiful wines that they make…and so some of that revenue must come back to the area to build that infrastructure and for community projects and that’s what the Palmer Unity Party will do. We will being back 25% of the revenue that’s generated in those regions, back to that region for infrastructure.
If you are elected what will be the first thing you would do?
The first thing I will do is stop all the nonsense, the rubbish, the lies and the deceit and bring honesty and truthfulness and some integrity to Canberra. I want to be able to represent the people of Shortland with that high degree of integrity that they simply haven’t had. I’ll also be listening to everything they tell me. I had a fellow ring me yesterday with some deep concerns about child welfare and I’ll be taking all of those issues to Canberra, to the party, to make sure that those local issues and those local people are actually heard. We won’t be towing the party line, actually we are taking the people’s concerns to Canberra.
How do you rate your chances?
Honestly I don’t rate my chances very high at all. This has been a very safe Labor seat since 1943. I think Jill Hall got over 50% of the vote last time around and I’m certain she’ll probably get that sort of vote this time around. What we want to do, I want to ask the Labor voters in this electorate if they voted for Labor in the last election three years ago, or if they voted for Labor six years ago, and they intend to vote for Labor again this time, are they better off now than they were three years ago when they cast their last vote for Labor? And if the answer is no, chances are we are not going to be better off in three years time when they vote for Labor again. I just want them to remember there is only a three year period of when this vote can be thrown out of Parliament again. If they are not better off than they were three years ago, give the Palmer United Party a chance to make their life better. If it doesn’t work and they are disappointed with their vote, well throw them out in three years time – just like hopefully the Labor party is going to be thrown out of Parliament this time around because we simply cannot afford them any more. So that’s my honest answer, I don’t expect to win, but I would like the opportunity of honestly and with integrity representing the people of Shortland in Canberra.
We had a viewer question from Gweneth Atkins about what you’ll do about TAFE if you come to power?
There is no funding coming out of education. So we would ensure that we would listen to the people who are running TAFE and we would ensure that if we possibly can, we would increase their funding but certainly the Palmer United Party has no plans to cut funding in education. I have done a number of TAFE courses, I know how vitally important it is working in the workplace to also have good education access at the level of TAFE so that they can increase their chances of more education and increase their chances of getting themselves further up in the workforce.
( This interview was conducted at the Lake Macquarie Business Club event 22/8/2013)
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