Personal Policy Positions

If elected as the State Member for Kurwongbah I have pledged to vote as directed by what the majority of voters want. However, as a candidate I have been asked where I personally stand on various policy issues. Below is a selection of those questions and my answers to them.

As each Voter/Representative votes on Bills & Legislation ( This is an example from the Dickson Reps ) they will create a voting history. We plan to display this voting history so other voters can find Representative who follow a similar voting pattern as them selves.

If you wish to know where I stand on other polices not covered on this page then contact me and I will add them here.

What is the main thing you will do to improve our democracy?

After due consideration & analysis I say that the reason our democracy is not working for the people is because there is no legal requirement for our elected representatives to do what the voters want. In the Constitution there is a separation of powers between the Executive ( The Government ) The Legislature ( Parliament ) and the Judiciary ( Courts & Police ). This has been done to prevent the government becoming a dictatorship. However, when the Constitution was written the political parties where not the threat to democracy that they are now. I believe that if our ancestors who wrote the Constitution had known how political parties would corrupt democracy they would have put a similar separation of powers between the voters whose right it is to form policy and the elected representatives who sole job it is to argue for what the voters want and when it comes time to vote that way in parliament.

What is your stance on immigration?

My personal stance is that the way immigration is being handled needs a serious change. There needs to be more focus on what is of benefit to the majority and less on what helps the corporations who donate to the political parties get cheap compliant labor. There also needs to be a much greater focus by the whole world on addressing the reasons people are fleeing their countries in the first place as that is the only long term solution to refugees. And the people who live in the communities where new comers are going to live should be part of the selection process of deciding who comes to their communities.

However, if I was the member for Dickson I'd have to go through the process of determining what the majority in Dickson want before voting in parliament.

What is your stance on Qld base load coal fired power stations?

My personal stance on all coal fired base load power stations is that they should be phased out over their operational lifetime and replaced with renewable power sources providing baseload power with energy storages such as batteries and the Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project in North Queensland. For those local economies that are impacted by the closing of power stations they need to be properly supported to transition to alternative sustainable industries. During this transition phase in states such as Queensland where there are state owned generators no more power stations should be privatised as the record shows that privatisation of any existing public utility, especially where it is a natural monopoly, has never been to the benefit of the users.

How will you preference on your 'How To Vote card'?

My personal position on How To Vote cards is that every voter should decide their own preferences as it is they who send their preferences not the candidate. Every time I have stood as an Independent I have run an Open Ticket where I say Vote 1 for me and I have left all the other candidates blank. The only exception to this is that if any candidate signs the same 'stat dec' I have, legally pledging to represent what the majority want, then I will preference them. Unless a miracle happens that will rule out all the candidates who belong to a political party as when they join their party they pledge their first allegiance to the party. I'm reluctant to declare who I will personally preference as it will then be taken as my How To Vote position which defeats the purpose of an open ticket. I can say I will be ordering my personal preferences by who is most likely to represent what the majority in the electorate want. See here for my 2020 Kurwongbah How To Vote card.

What is your position on Guns?

My personal position on guns is that I support the current gun laws, especially the bit about military style semi-automatics. I grew up in a town were guns were common. Our household had two 303s & a shotgun where the guns & ammo were not locked up and I as a kid had access to them. Nobody in my home town when I was growing up was murdered by a gun. To think that it is only gun laws that prevent gun violence in my opinion is too simplistic. As important as it is to have effective gun laws it is equally or even more important to have a healthy society where people have the basics they need to be part of society and don't feel marginalised.

What is your position on Tax?

My personal position on tax is that I beleive that the current neo-liberal economics is fundamentally flawed and only serves to benefit the Oligarchy. Whilst it may not be perfect ( what is? ) I beleive that Modern Monetary Theory is closer to economic reality. In MMT taxation is seen not as a prerequisite to government spending but as a means to dampen economic activity to stay within the labour & resource constraints of the real economy so damaging inflation does not occur. In fact Taxes are for redemption not for spending and that collected taxes collected as paper money has been burnt :

"So the Paper Money Acts that allowed the treasury to issue notes also imposed new taxes that would be of sufficient size and over a period long enough so that the notes would be redeemed – the recognized purpose of the taxes was to “redeem” the currency, by accepting that paper money in payment of taxes. In fact, colonial paper money could be redeemed” in two ways: payment of taxes or presentation at the treasury for payment in (British) coins. In other words, the treasury would spend the newly issued paper money into the economy and those receiving the treasury notes could use it to pay taxes, or spend it, or submit it to the Treasury in exchange for coin. What did the Treasury do with the notes it received in tax payment? Grubb reports that the “notes were removed and burned” – not spent."

What is your position on Jobs?

My personal position on jobs is that we should replace the welfare system ( for those people who are capable of working ) with the Australian Job Guarantee This is a tried and proven strategy developed by Professor Bill Mitchel from the Newcastle University's Centre of Full Employment & Equity . Overseas governments have taken this research and applied it in their countries but for some reason the Australian governments have refused to acknowledge the practical benefits of this strategy. I say it is madness to pay people to do nothing, or worse to make them chase their tails looking for jobs that aren't there and jump through unnecessary mutual obligation hoops. The simple fact is that if people work to create wealth there will be more to go around. And these jobs by creating more wealth help to pay for themselves. If it is good enough for the federal government to be the Lender of Last Resort to the private banks then i say it should be good enough for them to be the Employer of Last Resort.

What is your position on legalisation of cannabis for all its uses?

My personal policy position on all things cannabis ( medical & recreational ) is that it is a natural product that has been used without harm for 1000's of years and has provided vast benefit for humanity. That making it illegal was for political control of minorities and to give their corporate mates in the pharmacutical & synthetic materials industries protection from cannabis & hemp. And that keeping it illegal not only damages millions of lives but provides organised crime with rivers of gold.