Friday 17 May 2019

Candidate Rundown - Tas


Below is a list of all of the Senate Candidates for Tasmania; 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             Australian Conservatives              (CON)

The Australian Conservatives are reasonably self-explanatory, but I couldn't find any objective way to pick the three most important policy areas. I can't even take the top three on their policy page, because they are ordered alphabetically and don't necessarily reflect their importance to the party. So I've done it subjectively instead, and I apologise if my personal bias has influenced me.

Society and Culture

The party recognises Australia's Judeo-Christian heritage; supports freedom of thought, expression, association and equality; has pride in the Australian flag and history; believes "traditional marriage" is the foundation of civil society and champions individual rights and freedoms

Immigration and Citizenship

The Conservatives have vowed to halve immigration, never resettle refugees, withdraw from the UN Refugee Convention, reform all classes of visa, eliminate permanent residency and require ten-year residency (with 7 years of tax payment) to become a citizen

Energy

The Conservatives' website still hosts a video titled "Climate Doomsday Alarmism is a Hoax". It is unsurprising, therefore, that the party describes itself as "technology agnostic", does not support renewable energy targets and plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. The party also supports nuclear power.

B             The Nationals    (NAT)

Tas is one of the few states where the Libs and Nats are running separately. I've had a look at the policy page, noted the large number of double-digit-page “plans” and followed the old maxim “if you can't read all the policies, click on the “what-we-stand-for” link and paste is wholesale into your blog:
“We believe the future of regional Australia is critical to the future of our nation.
Our priorities are building stronger regional economies and secure communities, delivering opportunity and prosperity for all regional Australians, and ensuring a sustainable environment.
 Stronger, more secure, sustainable local communities that provide the opportunity for everyone to prosper will deliver a stronger, more secure and sustainable nation.
The Nationals commitment to the national interest does not stop there. The Nationals provide a considered and common-sense perspective on all elements of Government policy and a balance between Australia’s political extremes.”

C             Sustainable Australia      (SA)

The policy page does my job for me. Which I guess is what a good policy page should do? Priorities are identified as jobs, housing, planning and environment, and the summaries are directly quoted:

Jobs

"Better invest in education and skills training for local workers; Re-allocate our scarce economic capital (back into our factories, farms and small businesses, to re-diversify our economy); A simpler, fairer tax system; Re-invest in the regions; Fair trade with a level playing field; Australian ownership and management of utilities, land and resources; & more."

Housing and Planning

"Tax reform (end CGT/NG concessions); Stop foreign purchases; Reduce population growth pressures; Increase investment in public housing; Better bank lending practices; Greater renters’ rights; & more... Give real power to local communities in planning decisions; Increased developer charges for land value (rezoning) gains; Better public transport; Preserve or plant corridors of biodiversity; Prioritise ecological design in housing; Reduce population growth pressures; & more."

Environment

"Transition to renewable energy; Moratorium on all fracking; Better manage our water security; Increase conservation management funding and employment; Enhance biodiversity and native species programs; Protect animal habitats from housing and farming land clearing; End old growth forest logging; Minimise factory farming; Reduce waste production; Reduce population growth pressures (so all of the above isn't undermined); & more."

D             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.

E              Liberal Party of Australia               (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.

F              Animal Justice Party        (AJP)

Reasonably self-explanatory, and without much for me to add since the party divides its policies into those for humans, animals and the environment. Despite the breadth of policies, it's not inaccurate to describe the AJP as a single-issue party, so their vote on non-animal-related issues is unreliable.

Animals

"The AJP's proposed reforms for legislation relating to animals is quite lengthy, but includes:

  • Establishing an Independent Office of Animal Welfare with prosecution powers and “a definition of personhood to replace the current property status of animals”.
  • Ensuring a “fairer” (presumably lower) burden of proof for prosecuting animal cruelty cases.
  • Phasing out all animal farming and industries, but starting with factory farming techniques.
  • Banning live export.
  • Banning the use of stray animals in research.
  • Phasing out funding the use of animals in experimentation, “except where there are net benefits to the animals concerned”.
  • Banning horse jump racing, greyhound racing, recreational hunting, game fishing, rodeos and horse-drawn carriage rides.
  • Banning the use of animals in circuses and marine theme parks.
  • Banning zoos or transitioning them to sanctuaries and conservation parks “which exist solely in the service of animals”.
  • Limiting breeding of animals to licensed breeders.
  • Phasing out sale of pets except from shelters and rescues.
  • Subsidising pet desexing.
  • Making desexing a requirement for the sale of pets.
  • Making it illegal to prevent pet ownership of tenants.
  • Ensuring domestic violence shelters have facilities for animals.
  • Supporting non-lethal population control methods for introduced species and threats to native wildlife."

Environment

The AJP supports transitioning to a vegetarian lifestyle to minimise human impact on animals and free up land for reforestation. They also support the use of recyclable and upcycled materials, protect forests and marine habitats from destruction, and the use of clean energy. The AJP argues that coal seam gas and other sources of natural gas be reduced and phased out within 20 years, that fossil fuel usage not increase, that a carbon tax be placed on coal use and agricultural industries, and that Australia "rapidly transform to a carbon free energy infrastructure"
Humans
Most of the human policies are health policies, and most of the health policies are derived from perceived benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. They would promote this dietary shift through education, cutting subsidies to the red and processed meat industries and a "phase out [of] subsidies to intensive animal industries because they are both cruel and provide a breeding ground for new diseases which pose large public health risks". The AJP also advocates for an end to drug research for "diseases best managed by simple lifestyle choices" and the overuse of antibiotics which increase the rise of drug-resistant diseases. Other policies include opposition to gun ownership (based on the use of firearms in pest control), that domestic violence shelters include shelter for pets, and that work places should allow animals to be present.

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             Liberal Democratic Party               (LDP)

Liberal Democrats are a libertarian party. This means minimal government control on social issues (typically 'left') and economics (typically 'right'). Their policy page divides policies into two streams (liberty and prosperity) and 'our philosophy' identifies four headings of principles, but first notes "The Liberal Democrats stand for greater freedom, smaller government and personal responsibility." These are the three headings used below.

Freedom

Freedom for the LDP includes legalisation of marijuana and other drugs less harmful than tobacco; freedom of speech including defamation, public indecency and intimidation; allowing gun ownership for self-defence, and not requiring registration of long-arms or prohibiting semiautomatics; and allowing assisted suicide and most abortions.

Small government

Policy positions include end-dates on legislation, protection for whistle-blowers, bodies established to review government, privatise immediately the NBN, ABC, SBS, Postal service, Electricity, Public Transport, and eventually TAFEs, Universities, Public schools and hospitals.

Personal responsibility

The LDP would enable business owners to allow smoking in their venues, non-late-term abortion, pornography, sex work, euthanasia, all personal-use drugs and victimless crimes (including not wearing a seatbelt or bike helmet, and BASE jumping).

I               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.

J              Pauline Hanson's One Nation      (PHON)

One Nation's controversial policies are well known and their recent scandals involving the US NRA are still fresh. I can't find any guidance on which of their policies to prioritise on their site, and the list is alphabetical. I note that in Google, however, special mention is given to Climate Islam and Education. Whether these are topics One Nation considers priorities or not, it's the best I have to go on.

Climate Change

Simply put, One Nation has dedicated an entire "policy" page to climate change scepticism, claiming there is no global warming, increase in extreme weather events or polar ice cap melt. In terms of policy, PHON wants to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

Radical Islamic Terrorism

PHON insists the majority of terrorists are acting in the name of Islam (which surely depends entirely on your definition of terrorism) and proposed a 10-point policy including a Trump-style travel ban (their comparison, not mine), penalties for racism of any sort (as a cause of alienation and thus radicalisation), and cutting funding to groups like the Bankstown Poetry Slam which they describe as "a forum for hateful Islamic ranting"

Higher Education

The full policy text is "Support higher education for every Australian, at a reasonable cost. Availability should be given to Australians first, before foreigners. We oppose the privatisation of our universities. Students requiring assistance with fees should be assessed on an individual needs basis and not according to their parents’ income and assets."

K             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.

L              Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN)

For the JLN I'm using the old classic "first three policies [with working links]":

Defence

The party will seek to have Australian military uniforms made in Australia, guarantee strong wage growth for the military and requiring parliamentary approval for troop deployments over 30 days.

Medical Cannabis

The JLN believes medical decisions should be made by medical professionals, and that where a doctor prescribes medical cannabis it should be legal to produce, obtain and possess.

Pensioners and Retirees

Changes to retirement conditions, eliminating franking credits and the current pension payments are all unsatisfactory to this party

M            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.

N             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.”

O             -              (IND)

 

P             Shooters, Fishers and Farmers    (SFF)

There are a number of policies I could draw from here regarding foreign affairs, economics, recreation and environment. But it seems to me the three that deserve priority are the three F's linked to the party's very identity: Firearms, Fishing and Farming & Land Management.

UG1       BECK Greg/Australian Better Families      (ABF)

The ABF's policy flier is a convenient quick summary, and I've quoted directly from it below, but it also identifies the three areas of crucial importance to the party by having people hold up signs for family law, mental health and child support reform.

UG2       MAV Steve         (IND)

 

UG3       FLANNERY Francis            (IND)

 

UG4       STREET Karen/Love Australia or Leave    (LAL)

Despite the emotive name, the party doesn't seem to be a single-issue immigration party. While I couldn’t find detailed policies I did find quite a number of issues they have opinions on: "Truth in Sentencing; Apprenticeships; Assisting Small Businesses; Hard-line Immigration Policy; Combating Extremism & Islamisation in Australia; Halal Certification; Dedicated Incarceration Facility for Terrorists; Providing a Stronger Defence Force; Supporting Veterans; Removal of VLAD and Association Laws; Amend Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act; Welfare Reform; Reform Family Law; Child Support Overhaul; Coal Seam Gas Mining; Health System; Pro Firearm Policy; National Water Security; Job Creation; Environment; No Foreign Ownership; Education; Cost of living; Making it illegal to burn the Australian Flag; Royal Commission into Child Safety; UNEXIT/LEAVE Campaign"

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