Murray Plains Greens candidate a ‘financial conservative’

THE Greens’ candidate for Murray Plains knows he won’t unseat The Nationals, but is content giving the electorate an alternative choice.

John Brownstein is a secondary school teacher and former councillor and mayor of Benalla Rural City Council in north-east Victoria, from 2003 to 2008.

“I don’t expect that I’m going to win this one off (incumbent member) Peter Walsh, but it’s important that the community has a progressive voice, that will speak to the community,” he told The Guardian.

“That’s healthy for democracy.

“We got about 4.1 per cent of the vote in 2018, so anything above that I could possibly claim some credit for.

“We do have an excellent candidate for Northern Victoria in the Upper House, so the work I’m doing is there to support her opportunity to represent the Greens, because that seat is winnable for the party.”

Mr Brownstein was principal at Swan Hill College for a year in 2013 before assuming an operations management position for the north-west region in the Department of Education and Training.

He had since retired and was now a casual relief teacher at the college.

He is married with three adult children and lives in Tyntynder South.

“The Greens is a good fit for me – it suits my own personal values, they care about the environment and there are a whole raft of social justice issues,” Mr Brownstein said, noting an emphasis on improving equity and economic responsibility.

He said Victoria needed to move quicker to 100 per cent renewables.

“The Greens’ platform is that we reach that target by 2030, which we believe is absolutely doable, while protecting workers, creating jobs, boosting uptake of renewables and protecting national parks.

“I was disappointed to hear Nationals MPs touting nuclear as an option, but it’s the most expensive way to go and has safety issues associated with it.

“We need to tackle the climate crisis with an urgency that our local political representatives have ignored, which has contributed to the increased severity and frequency of droughts, bushfires and major floods in our region.

“The Swan Hill region will certainly benefit from investment in renewable technologies … we don’t need coal or gas, we must get out of those things and not create more of a problem.

“We’re suffering from those problems. Three years ago when we had a code red declaration for bushfires and now we are facing a massive flood disaster.”

Mr Brownstein said the Greens were focused on “regenerative agriculture”.

“We are strong on agriculture that works with the environment and protects the ecosystem,” he said.

“What we would like to see is a Landcare system on steroids, that is really well funded, protecting nature that we have left and providing ecosystem services to farmland communities.”

He said the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was failing and didn’t meet the legislative objectives to set sustainable diversion limits.

“It’s written so too much water can be removed from the river and compromising its health,” Mr Brownstein said.

“We need to keep the river system healthy for all our benefits. You only need to read the South Australian Royal Commission into the Basin Plan’s executive summary to get a good summary about how it’s not working.”

As a regional Victorian councillor, Mr Brownstein said he knew the importance of advocating, standing up and being responsible.

“I understand how governance works and how to be responsible financially,” he said.

“Quite conservative financially, making sure things balance and moving in the right direction and managing debt.”

Mr Brownstein said the Greens have plans to improve integrity in politics, regional health, transport and access to affordable housing.

“Home ownership has become unattainable for too many and rents have skyrocketed,” he said.

“The Greens’ plan includes the building of 200,000 public and affordable homes and will limit rent increases to stop out of control rent rises.

“Without these measures it will become increasingly difficult to attract people to our towns to fill workforce vacancies.”

A final field of candidates will be available at noon today.

More candidate profiles in next week’s editions of The Guardian.