INDEPENDENT candidate for Cowper Caz Heise has released several policy statements in the past two weeks.

Ms Heise said cost of living pressures are hitting people in Cowper hard.

A former Director of Nursing and Midwifery at the Coffs Harbour Health Campus, Ms Heise said increasing the Medicare rebate to GPs was a quick and easy way to help people stretch their finances further.

“Pensioners and welfare recipients often suffer poor health, but the Government’s cuts to the Medicare rebate means there are fewer doctors across Cowper offering bulk billing.

“Increasing the rebate will mean more vulnerable people will be able to afford to get the care they need without compromising other household expenditure.”

Ms Heise said she would advocate in Parliament “for a significant and permanent rise in welfare and pension payments to lift people out of poverty”.

With private rentals increasing by up to 20 percent in the past year, Ms Heise said the rate of rental assistance needs to increase so it keeps pace with the cost of living as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

She said it was time for leaders to look beyond band-aid solutions to relieve cost of living pressures like a temporary cut in fuel excise.

“With inflation rising we need to go directly to the root of the cost of living problem,” Ms Heise said.

She said the policies to suppress wages have to stop and the minimum wage needs to increase, and that wage growth should be tied to productivity increases.

“Over the past decade Australia’s biggest companies have made huge profits and found room to generously reward their managers and shareholders.

“It’s time to better share profits with their workers,” she said.

“In a cyclical economy those workers are someone else’s customers, and so the economic benefits of higher rates of pay and more secure work will be good for everyone.”

Ms Heise said it was also crucial for Governments to acknowledge the role being played by climate change.

“Prices for fruit, vegetables and meats are soaring because of supply chain interruptions due to floods, storms, droughts and fires and those same natural disasters are also pushing up insurance premiums and are stretching the resources of councils which are left to repair roads and community infrastructure.

“Addressing cost of living pressures won’t be easy or simple and will require a mix of short and long term strategic thinking and policy formulation.”

Ms Heise is also calling for the creation of a dedicated National Emergency Response Force, resourced with a fleet of specialised aerial fire-fighting units, to address the biggest threat to everyday people across the Mid North Coast.

She said while a strong Armed Forces is needed to protect Australia from foreign aggression, the threat of climate change is a larger and more immediate danger, and so deserves its own specialist tactical response unit.

Ms Heise said, “Climate change modelling predicts more severe fires, storms and flood events for the Hastings, Macleay, Nambucca and Bellinger Valleys, so it’s time we were all better prepared.”

Her proposed National Emergency Response Force would work hand in hand with local SES crews to respond when natural disasters hit.

Ms Heise is also committed to establishing an independent body to oversee and audit the roll out of big infrastructure projects across Australia to ensure that taxpayers get the best value for their dollars.

“Lots of people have been telling me they are amazed at how freely millions of dollars are allegedly spent on simple things like car parks, playgrounds and roads.

Ms Heise said, “We all too frequently hear Governments bragging about how much they’ve spent on something, but we never hear about how effectively the money was actually spent”, citing the Coffs Harbour boat ramp as an example.

She also said, “Just north of us the Government spent almost $6-billion on the Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade, and yet we’re now stuck with a roadway which is frequently cut by flooding and which is acting as a dam wall and drowning out farmland and communities”.

“We need more than just big spending policy announcements – we need real rigour around how money is spent to achieve the best outcomes for our communities.”

 

By Andrew VIVIAN