Dear Fellow Australians, In recent weeks you have been asking me to explain to you my views on certain matters. These matters, I may add, are important to you and to myself as well. I have held off answering earlier requests in an effort to compile a list that would cover a few topics that you deem important, so my apologies to those of you who have been waiting for some time for a response.
One of the most frequently asked questions to me has been why am I standing as a member of the National Party? This is a conservative party, given my working class upbringing and early years of voting Labour. Let me say this before I say anything else; I have not voted Labour since voting for Bob Hawke, a man who I felt at the time would make a great Australian Prime Minister. In a true democracy, it is the right of every citizen to vote for whomever they decide is fit to govern. It is also their right to keep that decision a secret if they so wish and it is no one else’s right to know or in any way interfere with that persons choice.
When someone like myself publicly nominates as a candidate then their choice is made public and they can be asked to explain themselves to those that they seek to represent and it is in that spirit that I now put these words together for your perusal. I have chosen to be a Nationals member, as is my right, because I truly believe that as a National I will be best placed to achieve what I am setting out to accomplish. What attracted me to the Nationals, after years of consideration, is that the party is democratically structured and organised. Not that the others aren’t, but the ‘Nats’ are much more grass roots, closer to the ground, so to speak.
Traditionally, the focus was the man on the land but in recent times the focus has broadened and deepened to embrace and include all parts of Australia giving all Australians a truly viable alternative. The other main attraction is the party’s solid Christian values i.e., love of family and family values, concern and involvement in local community, support of small business and love of our country. If elected I would of course be your voice in Canberra. I would have the opportunity to vote on all the big issues facing Australia’s future but I would be speaking with the voice of Australia and not necessarily the voice of the party room. I would as your member be living among you and not only hearing your voice but listening to it and learning from it; learning what worries you, what inspires you, what you are passionate about, what you believe in. In other words learning who you are and what you want and need from life so that you can be happier and more productive, in your family life and in your place of work.
We would be working together to create a better future. We are all products of our personal history so understandably one area of focus for me will be youth and the issues that young people face today in an ever increasing, confusing world. I will be addressing school truancy, looking at ways to keep school age children engaged and interested in being at school and learning and getting an optimised education that they will surely need if they are to have any future at all; a future free from dependency on welfare, a future that will honestly reward them for hard work, a future that will offer them choice and the opportunity to find a place for themselves in their world.
Education sets us free.
Lack of finding a meaning from education can lead to sadness, disillusionment, anger, addiction and all too often crime. I will fight to give all of our children a proper school education, something I never had…. education not regulation will set us free and life will educate us all with the living of it… such is the way of things.
Cold Seam Gas exploration: Allow me to say this first. The following thoughts, in fact all the opinions contained in this letter are my own and not necessarily those of The National Party (although they may not clash either!) I’m not satisfied that the present government has researched this thoroughly and therefore I cannot support what is happening right now in this country. I’m told by reliable friends in science that the future will rely heavily on our ability to produce. This is an area in which we have always excelled! It has always been that our farmers are highly regarded as some of the very best in the world. In the same way, our miners, steel workers, designers and innovators, scientists, in fact you name it and we can do it! Our producers right across the board are easily among the best in the world, we don’t make or produce shoddy stuff here.
I might mention here while we are on the subject of our farmers and their land that I do not fully support the selling of our farmland to foreign interests without proper regulation. I will never understand why the present Government has not put a moratorium on the selling off of our farmland until a proper analysis of all consequences has been undertaken.
On the other paradoxical hand, they are quick to spend millions of our tax dollars on research into packaging of cigarettes, ignoring the advice of vendors and actual smokers alike and then charging on to implement a plain packaging scheme that has not worked. Smoking is an addiction and plain packaging was never going to work as a deterrent.
I need to mention here another main focus point for the Nationals is small business. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy employing the greatest number of people. We used to have a thriving small business sector where thousands upon thousands of Australian families were able, through hard work, to make a comfortable living. Not so these days; over regulation, i.e. Red Tape, unworkable work place restrictions and unrealistic expectations set by our present government have seen far too many of these small family owned and operated businesses, the employers of thousands of our younger and older people, go to the wall. They need a fair go and they are not getting it!
I hope I have not only answered some of your questions but also have given those of you who are interested a better understanding of where and why I am embarked on this adventure. There will be more to follow… Until then, go with your God, go your chosen way, go seeking wisdom with an open heart and a soul that rejoices in the quest.
I remain your friend, Angry
research area, that better technology exists and that the methods for extraction are improving all the time. No one doubts that Gas is and will be an important source of energy but I cannot condone Mining Companies riding rough shod over the rights of landowners. If they can strike a deal with adequate compensation for use of the land then that could be a consideration but I have a real problem with supporting any government that will bulldoze over a citizen’s rights. I also cannot support reckless exploration or mining of existing grazing and farming land. One of the many reasons I chose to support The National Party is that the stability of our economic – See more at: http://www.gwpmagazine.com.au/gwp–online–journal/2013/09/06/dear-fellow-australians/#sthash.t0p1sF2g.dpuf