EIGHT candidates for Cowper in the upcoming Federal Election have faced-off in Kempsey.
The Meet the Candidates event at the Pensioner’s Club was attended by around 100 people and proved to be a lively and fast-paced affair.
The Lower House and Upper House candidates included Wendy Firefly (The Greens), Greg Vigors (Labor), Geoffrey Marlow (Fusion Party), Pat Conaghan (Nationals), Chris Walsh (One Nation), Megan Mathew (Legalise Cannabis), Zeke Daley (Independent) and Senate hopeful Michael O’Neill (Heart Party).
Independent Caz Heise was ill and unable to attend.
Each was given two minutes to respond to questions ranging from how they would tackle inflationary pressures on the cost of living, to the lack of available housing, and rising energy prices.
Single mother of five and grandmother of three Megan Mathew, said she was running for the Legalise Cannabis Party because, “I’m sick of whinging and there’s no point whinging if you’re not going to stand up and do something about it.”
She said one way to ease cost of living pressures would be to legalise cannabis as many are “paying upwards of $1200 a month to access medication that keeps them alive”.
She agreed with cutting the fuel excise and stopping supermarket price gouging, while advocating for Medicare to be broadened to include dental – among other health services.
Several conservative candidates on the panel expressed their anger at Australia’s “net zero” policy direction.
“We have this pivotal natural resource in Australia, it’s called coal,” Michael O’Neill of the Heart Party said.
“We ship it ‘en masse’ over to somewhere else, but we have this great ideology that we are saving the planet.
“This is an absurdity which doesn’t make sense, it is hurting the people and driving [up] our cost of power.”
Independent Zeke Daley, who is aged 18, wants to bring back manufacturing in Australia to improve employment and lower prices.
“Why are we exporting everything (raw materials) overseas and then importing everything (manufactured goods),” he said.
The Heart, One Nation and Nationals candidates said a large portion of new house prices was due to government fees and regulations.
“Some of the council and government costs add up to about 50 percent of the actual build,” Nationals incumbent Pat Conaghan said.
Fusion Party’s Geoffrey Marlow wants to remove Land Tax and “uphaul” the “entire rental and home-ownership system” in order to decrease the cost and accessibility of housing.
One Nation’s Chris Walsh is advocating to cut councils out of building processes; allow people to access superannuation; and cut immigration to reduce housing prices.
Labor’s Greg Vigors spoke about the achievements of the current government.
“Housing Australia’s Future Fund has 55,000 low-income social housing projects in the pipeline being actually built,” he said.
“Labor has fully funded budgeted programs that are happening [now].”
Greens candidate Wendy Firefly caused a momentary shock when she replied that, “The cheapest way to improve our cost of living and bring prices down for electricity, is to electrify everyone and everything.”
She explained that she meant every household, business and home should have solar and batteries installed to create “free, community-owned energy.”
Also absent from the list of 11 on the lower house ballot were Paul Templeton (Libertarian), Peter Jackel (Family First) and Geoffrey Shannon (Trumpet of Patriots).
By Ned COWIE