Choose vote wisely
DURING the last federal election, Clive Palmer and the United Australia Party spent $80 million on political advertising.
Whilst he did not win a single seat, Clive Palmer had a huge impact on the election outcome by giving preferences to the Coalition.
Political donations are undermining our democracy. They enable those with the deepest pockets to have a massive advantage in getting their message across.
Political donations should be capped and made public in real time so we know who is backing candidates and so that each candidate has the same opportunity to win your vote.
It was disappointing for those who made the effort to attend the candidate’s forum in Swan Hill last Wednesday that the United Australia Party and the Nationals would not tell people who they were giving their preferences to.
Choose your vote wisely and make sure you know who is preferencing who. It can have a major impact on who will lead this country after this election.
Peta Thornton
Woorinen
Thousands in limbo
SCOTT Morrison maintained one of the most brutal lies of Australian politics – that people had to be locked up to save lives at sea.
It was political abuse of the worst kind. Most of the refugees have finally been let out, many after ten years in prison, because they no longer serve any political purpose. Two hundred and twenty are still in detention.
Billions of dollars have been spent to keep this lie alive. Untold numbers of lives have been destroyed.
Those who made it to Australia before the detention lock-ups, aren’t much better off.
Thousands of them are living in limbo, and have been for ten years, many still on Temporary Protection Visas.
Yet most of them have worked full-time for the entire period, despite having been told, “You are an illegal arrival. (They are not) You will never be a citizen. You will never get your families out here to safety. You will never be welcome in Australia”.
Ann Webster has supported this cruel mantra when approached for help.
Show her she does not speak for you and put her last on the ballot paper.
Janet Field
Swan Hill
Careful what you wish for
THE last federal election was only won by the Coalition because the Australian voters rejected Labor’s global warming alarmism policies and yet the Coalition has now changed their global warming policies to be near identical to Labor. Why?
Is it because the Coalition has succumbed to the power and influence of the United Nations and World Economic Forum made up of undemocratically elected global elites who strongly promote a new world order and a drastic reduction in global population?
Any history book will tell you it’s been a lot hotter and colder than currently, and CO2 a lot higher and yet nothing to do with humans.
These new climate policies will devastate regional Australia while China laugh in our face and buy us out to utilise our natural resources for themselves.
Fossil fuels are needed to produce fertiliser and new policies have reduced supplies enormously and prices have skyrocketed four times over the last year.
I know because I’m a farmer. So food, fuel and power prices will continue to increase enormously going forward, so be careful what you wish for.
If you were happy with how Australians were treated over the last two years from the lies and policies put in place to “flatten the curve”, then socialism is for you and you need not worry. The Coalition could have revoked the states’ positions if they wanted but chose to support and encourage them, for which I will never forgive.
But if you are not happy and want Australia to remain a sovereign country with freedom of thought, speech, to protest and to seek a true democratic process, then vote for the freedom party independents (you determine your preference, not the party) and put the major parties last.
Simon Grigg
Patchewollock
Missing in the room
SOPHIE Baldwin says she advocates for water and the environment.
Ms Baldwin, along with all the other known Mallee candidates, was invited to attend a recent Sustainable Living in the Mallee event where the latest science and data was explained from a Mallee perspective.
If she was as passionate as myself and the other candidate who attended, she would have made sure she was in the room.
Ms Baldwin would have been held to account on her self-interest on water and her connection to the Southern Riverina Irrigators (SRI) group, who parachuted her in as a candidate, to put their vested interest on water into government.
We all know there is nothing that stops politicians lying in an election.
So how can Ms Baldwin be trusted on water, when she says one thing, but her conflicting stance and position as SRI executive, says another?
She says she has made her position clear, but we still do not have answers to the question, “What is your relationship with SRI if you say you do not have corporate backers?”
And, given that integrity is the major platform we, as Independents stand for, it is imperative you make this clear and put all of Australia and the electorate first, not just your interests.
This is a classic example of “Look not on what they say, but what they do.”
Claudia Haenel
Independent candidate for Mallee
Stop politicising the LGBTQIA+ community
I AM writing again regarding the comments made by West Wimmera Shire Mayor Bruce Meyer after his council voted against flying the rainbow flag for the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT).
Despite hearing such awful comments, it’s been heartening the way the LGBTQIA+ and West Wimmera communities have come together in response.
However, I have not heard my federal representative in parliament speak on this issue despite public calls from myself and The Wimmera Pride Project to do so. I need to explain why this causes me so much angst and pain.
Member for Mallee Anne Webster chaired a committee that looked into the federal government’s proposed Religious Discrimination Bill. The Wimmera Pride Project wrote to Dr Webster to express our fear about the legislation (specifically the statements of belief clause) and its power to strip individuals of their right to seek protection under state antidiscrimination law and access to justice in the free state tribunal.
The overriding of state anti-discrimination legislation was unique and unprecedented in 40 plus years of Australian anti-discrimination law. It was described as a sword for
this reason by many people more suitably qualified to speak on the matter than Dr Webster.
The report from the committee that Dr Webster chaired confirmed that our concerns were in fact correct. When the report was released, Dr Webster issued a press release
saying the legislation “struck a fair balance” and was “not a sword”.
Not only was the legislation a sword, it removed the shield the LGBTQIA+ community already had. She abandoned me and other LGBTQIA+ constituents (or anyone seeking the protection of state anti-discrimination law).
While what Bruce Meyer said was abhorrent and I am appreciative of the outrage people showed, we need to remember this was in response to asking council to fly a flag. Flying the flag is an important symbolic gesture that is hugely meaningful to those in the LGBTQIA+ community. However, it does not materially impact the lives of the entire community by restricting our ability to seek equal justice under the law.
What Anne Webster did to my community is just as bad, if not worse,than what Bruce Meyer did. Bruce, at least, was transparent with us.
I invite Dr Webster to prove me wrong. She broke my heart and my trust when she ignored our pleas to scrap the statements of belief clause in the Religious Discrimination Bill.
To all the other candidates for the seat of Mallee, I beg that you vow, should you be elected, to stop politicising the lives of your LGBTQIA+ constituents and focus on more important issues facing the electorate.
Patrick Quaine
Horsham
