Dickson candidates: Federal Election 2022

Moreton Daily invited candidates in the Federal Election to answer the same questions, with a word limit, and provide a photo which have been used where provided.

Their responses are listed below in the same order their names will appear on the ballot paper.

Some responses have been edited to ensure all are a similar length, and candidates receive fair and even treatment.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OFFICIAL AEC MAP OF DICKSON ELECTORATE

Here are your candidates for the seat of Dickson:

Name: Alan Buchbach

Party: Independent (Prosperity & Freedom)

Suburb: Albany Creek

Profession: Geologist

How will you address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages?

We are anticipating a hung parliament, so as an Independent my role will be to keep the parties-who-form-government honest.

With respect to stagnant wages, the only way to achieve real wage growth is to increase the demand for labour.

Economics 101, supply and demand: If more employers are competing for workers and the supply being constant, we will see an increase in the cost of labour – ie: real wage growth.

In order to create this environment we must increase the productivity of the Australian economy which means cheaper energy, lower and less complicated forms of tax, less regulation.

What commitments are you making in relation to the region’s roads and infrastructure needs?

My campaign platform is built upon three pillars. Prosperity, Education and Security.

My initiatives involve eliminating several nuisance taxes and departmental restructures as recommended by the Treasury.

This will both help close gaps in the government budget, as well as creating funding for critical infrastructure projects such as: Fixing the North Pine Dam's flood mitigation gate, extending the Blackspot Program to Dickson and more.

Outside of Dickson, this recovered funding will also allow for the drought proofing the 'Downs and numerous flood mitigating construction projects.

How will you address health and aged care needs?

I believe there is a sensible middle path between the LNP's AN-ACC program and that of the Greens’; the ALP has yet to provide sufficient detail on their aged care plan to allow an assessment: They offer general statements like more carers and better food.

One area that I find the other parties don't spend enough time on is mental health.

We've seen such a massive increase in suicide in Australia these past two years, that it is not sufficient to merely offer access to counselling for our friends and neighbours in despair, we need to send a message of hope.

Hope for their futures, as many are despondent due to the vaccine mandates.

We must provide absolute certainty that these mandates are gone for good and that is the best medicine we can provide.

Additionally, by eliminating the vaccine mandates, we will see literally thousands of healthcare workers back into our hospitals and healthcare centres where they are desperately needed.

How will you support small business?

The Treasury department has identified more than $40 billion in compliance costs in the current tax code and provided recommendations on how to reduce and eliminate them.

As small businesses have less resources than do the big, they stand to gain substantially more from simplifying our tax code and other regulations.

What is your position on climate change and how would you work to achieve it?

As a geologist, I am able to place our present changing climate into better perspective than can most.

It is important to be mindful that Earth's climate will change regardless of the actions we take and we must therefore make adaptation the cornerstone of our climate and energy policy.

I go into great detail on climate and other policies on my website: dicksonindependent.info

Name: Lloyd Russell

Party: Liberal Democratic Party

Suburb: Ferny Hills

Occupation: Consultant

How will you address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages?

Controlling the cost of living requires the individual to have as much money in their pocket as possible. As an elected representative I will be advocating for significant reform in government spending and taxation.

What commitments are you making in relation to the region’s roads and infrastructure needs?

In responding to this question, I will have to make the assumption that you are asking about the roads that require federal government funding and not all roads and infrastructure. One initial thing that must occur is proper Public Private Partnerships in building these roads and major infrastructure projects. The current situation where government fully controls the contracts is resulting in cost blow outs, time delays and poorly finished work. Through true PPPs the contractor has far more “skin in the game” and will deliver these projects on time and on budget

How will you address health and aged care needs?

State governments are extremely lazy when it comes to health. However, that said one must question why the Federal health department (excluding the PBS and Medicare) costs over $450 million annually yet does not own a hospital or employ any medical practitioners.

It is by cutting this kind of waste and making COAG work correctly the Federal government’s role in health care can be improved.

As for aged care, it is the multitude of bureaucracy involved resulting in no one being directly responsible and accountable that has caused the issues.

This needs to be stripped back to a targeted, responsible and accountable framework that reduces the loopholes.

As for major infrastructure i.e., buildings and other facilities, engaging in true Public Private Partnerships will rectify the issues here.

How will you support small business?

The SME sector is drowning in red, green and blue tape therefore attacking this initially is the main focus of the LDP.

Refer to our small business policy in the policy document as this outlines the broad package for this sector.

What is your position on climate change and how would you work to achieve it?

Climate change is real and has been for 5 billion years. However, the Net Zero policy is an absolute economy-destroying ideology that must be called out.

Bushfires are not more fierce due to climate change. They are more fierce due to green policies locking up country that then becomes overgrown with fuel, including noxious vegetation that creates these firebombs waiting to explode.

Making all state owned and operated land managers accountable for cold burns and fire protect is step one, opening up state owned land for commercial and recreational use is step two.

When it comes to low emissions energy, Australia must lift the ban on nuclear energy and commence a nuclear energy industry immediately.

Do not give me the 50-year-old objections – rely on STEM to inform the community and get on with nuclear energy.

Name: Peter Dutton

Party: Liberal National Party

Suburb: Dayboro

Profession: Federal Member for Dickson

How will you address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages?

The Morrison Governments have a comprehensive plan to reduce the cost of living for locals.

We have halved the fuel excise tax reducing fuel by 22c per litre at the bowser, delivered a one-off cost of living cash payment of $250 for aged pensioners and concession card holders and low and middle income earners will receive further tax cuts through their tax return this financial year.

What commitments are you making in relation to the region’s roads and infrastructure needs?

My local plan has delivered federal funding for many important road and transport upgrades.

We are upgrading the Bruce Highway, building the missing on and off ramps at Dohles Rocks Rd in Murrumba Downs, duplicating Linkfield Rd overpass, constructing a new park ‘n’ ride at Ferny Grove train station for commuters and flood proofing Youngs Crossing.

I am taking up the fight with the State Labor Government to get these projects brought forward and completed as soon as possible.

How will you address health and aged care needs?

Australia is in a stronger position than many other countries in the world coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic due to our strong economic management and health response.

The Morrison Government has invested record amounts in our hospitals, Medicare and aged care and funding goes up every year.

In addition to this, due to our strong economic management, thousands of new life-saving medicines are being funded under the Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme.

How will you support small business?

The Morrison Government is supporting small business through the continuation of the Instant-Asset write-off, reducing red tape and regulatory hurdles and lower taxes.

We have reduced the corporate tax rate for small and medium enterprises to 25 percent, down from 30 percent under Labor.

What is your position on climate change and how would you work to achieve it?

The Morrison Government has committed to reaching net zero by 2050 but importantly we will use new and emerging technology to achieve this through technology, not taxes.

By using this approach, we have already reduced emissions by 20 percent on 2005 levels.

Name: Thor Prohaska

Party: Independent

Suburb: Lawnton

Profession: Business Analyst and Democracy Champion

How will you address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages?

For me to address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages I would have to be elected to parliament, with a hung parliament and I’d have to hold the balance of power before I could have any material impact on this or any other Bill before parliament.

As this scenario is virtually impossible, I would rather focus on what I really can do.

And that will be after the election and for the next term of government to grow and use the Dickson Representatives’ Direct/Representative network to crowdsource the knowledge in the electorate to determine what we in Dickson think is the best approach to reduce the cost of living and to stimulate wage growth.

We’ll then communicate our collective Will and all supporting arguments and evidence to the member for Dickson with the request that this is what they will advocate for, and how they will vote in parliament on, Bills related to cost of living and wages.

As whoever is elected to parliament will not have legally pledged to represent the informed majority view of the electorate as I have then it will be optional for the member to follow our direction. That is not democracy.

I personally believe that Modern Monterey Theory with its focus on full employment and growing productivity has much to contribute to informing policy and Bills to moderate living costs and produce fairer wage outcomes.

What commitments are you making in relation to the region’s roads and infrastructure needs?

I commit to engaging with the electorate’s voters and community representatives to determine what we in Dickson want regarding road planning and infrastructure priorities and how we want to resource, finance and manage this work.

How will you address health and aged care needs?

By advocating in the electorate policy forums for a radical rethink of health and aged care policies because it’s painfully clear that after all the enquires our health and aged care sectors are getting worse not better.

For example, co-locating aged care and childcare/pre school in the same facilities as this has been proven to help on many levels both the young and aged as seen in the TV series ‘Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds’.

As for health, greater emphasis on preventative measures.

How will you support small business?

Following the electorate engagement model outlined above to bring small business people together so they can tell us what they need.

What is your position on climate change and how would you work to achieve it?

My personal position on Climate change is that it is happening. The power companies and other fossil fuel users are already transitioning away. Australia is in a fantastic position to capitalise on a renewable energy boom but the ‘fossils’ in the major parties are blocking efforts to do this wherever they can to keep their donors happy.

Name: Tamera Gibson

Party: Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

Suburb: Wights Mountain

Occupation: Business owner

How will you address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages?

Reduce government overreach into the private sector, reduce nuisance taxes, encourage nation-building projects that de-centralise our economy and provide flow-on benefits for growth of new industry or agriculture in regional areas, provide services to regional areas to encourage families to live outside of our major cities

What commitments are you making in relation to the region’s roads and infrastructure needs?

Successive governments have failed to build and maintain nation-building water infrastructure projects.

In a country of drought and flooding rains we need dams for flood mitigation and water storage

How will you address health and aged care needs?

We need to look at having a health care system not solely an illness management system.

Aged Care is going to be under increasing demand with an ageing population, ensuring people are supported to be as independent as possible for as long as possible is the best outcome for all concerned.

When residential care is required, it must be tailored to the individual’s assessed care needs

How will you support small business?

Reduce red and green tape, remove government overreach into private businesses, remove nuisance taxes, remove all COVID restrictions and get ALL people back to work.

What is your position on climate change and how would you work to achieve it?

Climate has always changed, and will continue to change in the normal cycle.

We are seeing the abandonment of Net Zero by 2050 by energy affected European countries as they discover that without coal and gas they cannot meet the energy requirements of their countries.

India and China, two of the world’s largest emitters of CO2, have never signed on to Net Zero by 2050 and the CO2 Australian emits makes “no difference to the world temperature” according to our own chief scientist.

Wind and Solar is insufficient to power Australia with 80 percent of our current power coming from coal or gas.

Getting Australians back to work and supporting industry and agriculture is where we need to focus our efforts so we can pay down our trillion dollar debt!

Name: Alina Ward

Party: United Australia Party

Suburb: Lawnton

Occupation: Child Protection/NDIS/Early Childhood

How will you address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages?

The United Australia Party has a plan to pay back the $1.4 trillion of debt the LNP and ALP have gotten us into by introducing a 15 percent tax license on our iron ore.

The money from the tax tariff will go straight to paying off our debt and in turn will stop the rise of inflation and allow us to put money back into manufacturing, infrastructure, and wage growth. People are living below the poverty line because the wage to cost of living ratio is completely out of control.

What commitments are you making in relation to the region’s roads and infrastructure needs?

Roads and infrastructure are paramount in our electorate and as it stands the roads and public transport are not being updated as fast as the population, which in turn makes traffic a nightmare and people’s lives miserable.

We need to prioritise upgrading our roads and public transport, which we can do with the economic package the United Australia has put forward.

The package allocates $6 billion dollars per electorate.

How will you address health and aged care needs?

The United Australia Party will see a $40 billion package put towards health care that will bypass State Governments to prevent fees being funnelled out and will go straight to specific healthcare services such as hospitals and aged care.

We will also raise the age dcare pension $180 per fortnight to bring our pensioners above the poverty line and allow them to enjoy their retirement.

How will you support small business?

We have small businesses tax cuts including a change in provisional tax, which will stop the advance payment of tax before profits are made, easing pressure on small business as we will be cutting the fringe benefits tax.

We also have a buy Australian policy which encourages Australians to buy Australian from Australian businesses.

What is your position on climate change and how would you work to achieve it?

Our position on climate change is to continue to research low emissions energy sources that produce minimal toxic byproduct.

This can be done with nuclear energy, where the byproduct can be recycled again to charge batteries.

While this is a viable option, more research needs to be done.

We also need to stop deforestation, while regenerating and revegetating areas once we’ve finished with them.

We need to continually investigate ways to reduce land fill as the byproduct that leaches into the soil from landfill is toxic and also produces emissions.

Name: Ali France

Party: Australian Labor Party

Occupation: Media and Communications Manager

How will you address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages?

We have a cost-of-living crisis which has emerged on the Morrison Government’s watch and an interest rate rise has just added to that pain.

There are many people working hard but going backwards in our community and that’s because wages are not keeping up with inflation.

Labor will get wages moving again by increasing productivity and that means investment in training, cheaper childcare and more opportunities to get a full-time job.

We will also deliver cheaper electricity and medicines, enable more low-income earners to own their own homes and widen eligibility for the seniors’ health card.

What commitments are you making in relation to the region’s roads and infrastructure needs?

We have committed $200 million to widen the Bruce Highway between Dohles Rocks Rd and Anzac Ave, which will enable the on/off ramps onto Dohles Rocks Rd to be built.

This has been a local traffic nightmare for decades; Labor will fix it.

How will you address health and aged care needs?

Addressing the aged care crisis is critical!

Labor will overhaul our aged care sector by putting nurses back into nursing homes, increasing wages for aged care workers, mandating minimum requirements for time spent with residents and for better food and nutrition and tougher oversight to ensure that taxpayer dollars are going to residents and staff not shareholders.

Getting access to healthcare when you need it is crucial, but many people are finding that healthcare is getting more expensive and many end up in emergency or in hospital because they have put off seeing a doctor or specialist.

Labor will deliver two bulk-billing urgent care clinics - one on Brisbane’s northside and one in Redcliffe - to take pressure off our hospitals and ensure people get the care they need when they need it.

We will also reduce the cost of prescriptions by $12.50, deliver more GPs to the regions and widen eligibility for the seniors’ health card.

How will you support small business?

I’ve heard from many local businesses and micro businesses that weren’t eligible for Jobkeeper and really struggled over the past few years.

We supported the small business tax cut to 25 percent and we support the instant asset write-off, Labor had that policy while in government.

We have a Buy Australian Made procurement policy which will mean more Australian businesses will get more government work and we have plans to cut red tape.

But at the moment it’s incredibly important that we reduce the costs of living and ensure people have more money to spend in local businesses.

What is your position on climate change and how would you work to achieve it?

We must address climate change, while at the same time bringing down power prices and creating the jobs of the future.

Labor has a target to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 43 percent by 2030 and net zero by 2050. We have a Powering Australia Plan that will set us up to reach this target, which includes rewiring the electricity grid to take advantage of renewable energy sources, making electric vehicles cheaper, installing 400 community batteries including one in Kallangur and invest in renewable industries in the regions.

Name: Vinnie Batten

Party: Queensland Greens

Suburb: Dayboro

Profession: Environmental scientist

How will you address the rising cost of living and stagnant wages?

Wages haven’t kept up with our skyrocketing cost of living, and we need a solution.

The Greens will:

• Raise the minimum wage to 60 percent of the median wage
• Raise income support to $88 a day, above the poverty line
• Provide free universal childcare
• Bring dental and mental health into Medicare
• Bring back free uni and TAFE

What commitments are you making in relation to the region’s roads and infrastructure needs?

We will make public and active transport more accessible and less expensive, to better connect people between the cites, outer suburbs and regions.

The Greens will invest an extra $25 billion into rail and bus services, as well as $500 million per year into making cycling and walking safer, and introduce thousands of new electric buses to make the network cleaner and greener.

How will you address health and aged care needs?

The Greens will:

• Bring dental and mental health into Medicare
• Scrap all out of pocket fees for associated diagnostics, such as X-rays and MRIs
• Stop the public subsidisation of the private health system, and reinvest a sorely needed $7 billion back into our public system
• Implement the findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care by phasing out for-profit aged care providers, investing $6 billion per year to increase hours of care for each resident, introducing ratios of staff/residents, and increasing wages and training among staff

How will you support small business?

I myself run a small business, and as a young person consider the Greens my best option for the safety and prosperity of my future life and career. We will:

• Provide grants and loans to help small business replace gas with more sustainable and cost-efficient alternatives
• Support women-led small businesses with a $10 million micro-financing facility to provide low and no interest loans up to $10,000
• Ensure business owners are getting access to the cheapest utilities by establishing an independent comparison tool for phone and internet products and services, and require transparent review of NBN pricing structures

What is your position on climate change and how would you work to achieve it?

I am an environmental scientist, and see the Greens as the one and only option if you’re voting with climate action in mind.

We are the ONLY party in the seat of Dickson that is following the recommendations of the IPCC and the consensus view of the scientific community.

Liberal and Labor plan to open 114 new coal and gas projects, while also accepting huge donations from the very same corporations that profit from this.

To fight the urgent threat of climate change, the Greens will:

• Ban all new coal, oil and gas approvals
• Transition Australia out of coal
• Invest $40 billion to deliver 100 percent publicly owned renewable energy by 2030
• Encourage investment in renewable manufacturing and mineral processing
• Work with coal communities to transition and reskill workers into new employment at existing pay rates for 10 years

We’ll pay for this by:

• Getting billionaires and big corporations to pay their fair share of tax, with a 6 percent wealth tax on billionaires and a 40 percent super-profits tax on big corporations earning over $100 million annually
• Stop the government handouts of public money to the fossil fuel industry
• Reverse the Coalition’s Stage 3 tax cuts for the highest income earners