Below is a list of all of the Senate Candidates for the Northern
Territory; unfortunately, I have not had time to look into the independents
this year. I have tried for each to list three policies or positions, though
this was not always possible. I’ve done my best to make these the three most
important issues to the party, so you can expect there will be little room for
compromise if elected. This often involves a lot of guesswork. Where it was
particularly speculative, I have explained why I have chosen these three policy
areas. Links are provided to the source of the three policy headings, not necessarily
the policy detail which may come from multiple sources.
A United Australia Party (UAP)
Despite Palmer's ubiquitous advertising campaign,
particularly online, the policy page is rather sparse. I quote it below:
"Party Officials should not be Lobbyists, thereby
taking a strong position on Paid Political Lobbyists, saving tax payers dollars
and introducing Fair Policies
Revising the current Australian Government’s Refugee Policy
to ensure Australia is protected and refugees are given opportunities for a
better future and lifestyle
Creating Mineral Wealth to continuously contribute to the
welfare of the Australian community. This will be achieved by utilising mineral
resources from Queensland and Western Australia, and incentives from the
Commonwealth of Australia to establish downstream processing in the States of
Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia; and exporting products at a
higher dollar value, thereby creating more revenue, jobs, tax and more
facilities.
Establishing a System where people create wealth in various
parts of the country and for that wealth to flow back to the Community that
generates the wealth. For example, if a particular region creates wealth, a
significant percentage of that wealth should go back to the region."
B Australian Labor Party (ALP)
Labor's policy page is obviously comprehensive. So I didn't
look at that. I looked at their campaigns page, which allows you to search
specifically for two themes: education and health. To this I will add climate
change, as that has been a huge focus in the campaign.
Education
Labor will subsidise 700,000 preschool places,
"uncap" universities to provide funding for 200,000 more places, and
waive fees for 100,000 TAFE places including at least 50,000 female students,
20,000 students of disability and aged care and 10,000 students of early
education. They have also set the target of 3% of GDP to be spent on research
and development projects. Spending commitments also include $3.2 m to assist
rural students into tertiary education, $300 m for a University Future Fund and
an extra $14 b for public schools.
Health
One of Labor's earliest major commitments was around cancer
treatment: the party will spend $2.3 b on this, including $125 m in research,
$600 m to fund cancer scans and $433 m to cover consultation costs. Partially
overlapping with this Labor will invest $2.8 b in hospitals, $200 m in
headspace plus to combat mental health issues, develop a National Rural Health
Strategy and regulate drug and alcohol treatment.
Climate Change
The party's target is 50% renewable energy by 2030 and net
zero pollution by 2050. Specific programs include rebates to support 100,000
new solar/battery installations in homes, 10 community power hubs (including
wind farms) and $1 b in projects to support hydrogen power.
C Country Liberals (LIB)
As one of the major parties the Liberals have a very wide-ranging
policy platform. To isolate three talking points, I have referred to their
"our plan" which after championing several past achievements
identified four key areas: tax relief, infrastructure, family services and
border security. Of these, family services was omitted from my summary due to
its broad and loosely defined scope which includes childcare, education, health
and numerous other distinct policy areas that cannot be summarised concisely.
Tax Relief
Ignoring the large portions of the Liberal policy pages
dedicated to establishing Labor as a tax bogeyman, the main points are that the
party will reduce personal income tax, reduce the company tax rate from 30% to
27.5% and eventually to 25%, and they will expand the availability and size of
the instant asset write-off which allows the full deduction of business assets
individually worth under $30,000.
Infrastructure
The list of infrastructure projects on the Liberal website
is too long to effectively summarise, but includes $100 billion in transport
and congestion solutions including road upgrade and expansion, rail expansion
and electrification, public transport and car parking projects, bridge
construction, heavy vehicle accommodation and new airports/airport access.
Border Security
The essential planks of Liberal border protection policy
are: assessing refugee status in offshore centres rather than in Australian
borders, granting temporary protection visas to ensure refugees cannot become
permanent citizens, turning back boats where it is deemed safe to do so,
cancelling visas for criminals and most controversially revoking citizenship of
dual nationals involved in terrorism.
D - (IND)
E Rise Up Australia Party (RUA)
RUA is a far-right minor party famous for leader Danny
Nalliah's claims that non-Christian places of worship are "Satan's
strongholds", that gay and lesbian individuals can be converted back to
heterosexual lifestyles and that bushfires which killed over 170 people were
divine punishment for legalising abortion; although the policies outlined below
are selected reflect the party's main focusses, it is of course worth
remembering that the party also holds to core conservative ideas including opposition to
Euthanasia or voluntary assisted dying; scepticism about climate
change; and opposition to same-sex marriage (this
policy is outdated on their website, citing obsolete legislation and noting
that SSM cannot be legalised without an act of parliament (which was passed
more than a year ago)). The party is one of very few, however, who have a
specific policy condemning Nazism.
Protect Aussie Jobs
RUA has set itself the ambitious policy to "Introduce
full employment; eliminate dole payments as we know them.". It's
proposed measures to protect Australian jobs include tariffs to protect
manufacture and rural industries; a minimum milk price to be paid to farmers
along with tax exemption for dairy products and a ban on milk imports;
abolition of payroll tax and unspecified red tape; and a repeal
of the Gillard-era carbon tax (which was actually repealed in 2014, but
who's keeping track?).
Protect Aussie Ownership
This party aims to preserve Australian ownership of
companies and assets through measures which include the establishment of a government-owned
bank giving interest-free loans with generous repayment terms to Farmers,
Market Gardeners, small Business and those suffering severe hardship on top of
a freeze on mortgage repayments for these people. The party also believes it is
important to prohibit foreign acquisition of Australian land and
infrastructure.
Protect Aussie Way of Life/Protect Aussie Customs
RUA has a strong view about what parts of Australian culture
need preserving; this is their most famously controversial dimension, with some
arguing that the party's policies in this area are contrary to core elements of
Australian life including inclusiveness and "mateship",
multiculturalism and freedom of speech. RUA believes defacing the Australian
flag should be a criminal offence, the Burka should be banned in public, child
refugees should not have been brought to Australia from Nauru, immigrants must
"respect Australian values" which includes respect for Christmas and
Easter regardless of their religious beliefs, and that multiculturalism (the
existence of varied cultures which they distinguish from multi-ethnicity, the
existence of multiple races) is inherently dangerous. They defend the rights of
parents to smack children and support the return of (undefined)
"discipline" to schools, sack university staff perceived to be
encouraging "left wing socialist policy" and mandate school teaching
of how to raise a (also undefined) model family.
F Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party (HEMP)
HEMP is a single-issue party supporting the
decriminalisation of cannabis for use as food, fuel, fibre, medicine, cosmetic
and a recreational drug. It is probably a safe assumption based on previous
alliances and the general focus of this party that they will vote in a
generally left/progressive direction on other matters, but this is always the
risk with single issue parties.
G Citizens Electoral Council (CEC)
CEC's header on its 2019 election page lists three policy
areas.
Stop 'bail-in'
Bail-ins, according to the
CEC are situations where banks in debt delete your savings and instead
issue you with shares in the bank without permission. How real this threat is I
won't comment on, but the CEC is outraged at this secret international
conspiracy.
Break up the banks
TO summarise, the CEC wants all banks to be split into
commercial banking (loans and deposits) and investment banking (including insurance,
stock broking, financial advice, wealth management and superannuation) to
separate the public's savings from the volatilities of the investment markets
Rebuild the country
"The CEC advocates a massive public infrastructure
development program for Australia of major nation-building projects in water,
power, and transportation, which will open up all of Australia to economic
development and population. We reject and will scrap public-private
partnerships (PPPs), and use a national bank to publicly fund projects to be
kept in public ownership. This program will address the infrastructure deficit
that has been built up through decades of under-investment, and reindustrialise
the economy by stimulating industries, including steel-making and cement
manufacture."
H The Greens (GRN)
According to their policy page, the Greens "champion
big, evidence-driven solutions to the major problems we’re facing now: economic
inequality, increasing cost of living, environmental destruction and climate
change." I think it's fair to say the party's stance on environmental
destruction and climate change are well known, so I have merged them to give a
broad environmental policy here.
Economic inequality
The party supports public ownership and opposed
privatisation, including reversing past privatisations, creating a
non-for-profit bank and not-for-profit renewable energy company, capping power
prices and opposing selling the NBN. The Greens' plans also include increased
funding for temporary and emergency accommodation to combat sleeping on the
streets along with more long-term allocation of money for more rental
properties and tenancy advocacy services as well as phasing out tax incentives
that favour investors over home buyers. Greens policies for economic equality
extend more obliquely to include "closing the gap" with Indigenous
people through treaties, ensuring equality for women in the workplace,
increasing accessibility for disabled people and fully finding the NDIS
Increasing cost of living
The party's not-for-profit companies and caps on power
prices are factors here too, along with rewriting workplace laws and increasing
wages, investment in science and research in preparation for future industries
and support for more than 2 million small businesses.
Environment
The Greens aren't just known for their environmental
policies, they're named for them: opposition to coal seam gas and fracking,
deforestation, gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight; legislation to
protect marine parks, the Barrier Reef, the Murray-Darling; support for
electric vehicles, 100%renewable energy, and coal workers during the phase out
of fossil fuels.
I Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party (FACN)
Fraser Anning shot from relative obscurity among elected
politicians due to his highly controversial and conservative views. His party's
policy page has only one policy link (Veterans' Policy) but also lists 21
numbered items, topmost on that list being (1) that Australia was founded as a
"as an English speaking, predominantly European Christian
Commonwealth", (2) that immigration needs to prioritise "those best
able to integrate and assimilate" (i.e., presumably, English speaking,
predominantly European Christians) and (3) opposition to same-sex marriage and
abortion. So do not assume this party is a single-issue one simply because
there is only a single policy to expand upon.
Veterans
The party supports marking the drivers' licenses of veterans
or issuing veterans ID cards, military appointments to veterans affairs, military
membership on tribunals for all claims on the department of veterans' affairs, re-establishment
of a defined benefit superannuation scheme for ADF members, the right of any
former serviceperson to demand accommodation at military facilities and a
retirement village for veterans in Townsville.
No comments:
Post a Comment