Canberra Daily has asked all parties for an “election pitch”. Here are their replies. We will update this story should we receive more responses.
ACT Greens
Candidates: Sam Nugent, Laura Nuttall, Troy Swan (Brindabella); Jo Clay, Dani Hunter, Tim Liersch, Adele Sinclair (Gininderra); James Cruz, Isabel Mudford, Shane Rattenbury, Jillian Reid, Rebecca Vassarotti (Kurrajong); Michael Brewer, Sam Carter, Emma Davidson, Harini Rangarajan (Murrumbidgee); Andrew Braddock, Soëlily Consen-Lynch, Alex Gias (Yerrabi)
Website: https://greens.org.au/act
ACT Labor
Candidates: Louise Crossman, Brendan Forde, Mick Gentleman, Caitlin Tough, Taimus Werner-Gibbings (Brindabella); Tim Bavinton, Yvette Berry, Tara Cheyne, Heidi Prowse, Sean Sadimoen (Ginninderra); Andrew Barr, Aggi Court, Martin Greenwood, Rachel Stephen-Smith, Marina Talevski (Kurrajong); Noor El-Asadi, Marisa Paterson, Chris Steel, Nelson Tang, Anna Whitty (Murrumbidgee); Suzanne Orr, Michael Pettersson, Mallika Raj, Ravinder Sahni, Pradeep Sornaraj (Yerrabi)
Website: https://www.actlabor.org.au/
ACT Labor has a progressive, practical and proven plan for Canberra.
Labor’s team of MLAs and candidates have been listening and engaging with local communities right across Canberra.
We want to make the Canberra we all know and love, even better.
Our plan is to expand public services to meet the growing health, education, transport and recreation needs of Canberrans.
Only Labor will deliver the major infrastructure Canberrans want in a modern city. Labor is the party that builds hospitals, and that will continue with the construction of a new Northside Hospital in Bruce.
Labor delivered Stage 1 of our city-wide light rail network, and the next stage is already underway.
We know that many Canberra households are under pressure from national cost-of-living pressures. That’s why we will deliver more practical support the ease the cost of everyday expenses on the household budget like transport costs, education costs and energy costs.
If re-elected, Labor will make continue making record investments in our public healthcare system. As we build more hospitals and more community health centres, Labor has a comprehensive plan to hire 800 more nurses, doctors, specialists and other health workers to give Canberrans the best possible care.
We will build and renew more public schools and hire more teachers.
In 2020, Labor set a target of growing Canberra’s total employment base to 250,000 local jobs by 2025. We passed that mark two years early, so in our 2024 economic plan we are setting an ambitious target of 300,000 jobs in our economy by 2030.
As our population grows, Labor also has a plan to deliver the housing our city will need. We will enable the construction of 30,000 more homes by the end of 2030, including a record investment enable 5,000 additional affordable rentals and grow our public housing stock across the city.
And we will continue to develop and implement progressive, nation-leading social policies that directly improve people’s lives.
I hope you will support us with your vote, so we can keep delivering our progressive, practical and proven plan for Canberra.
Animal Justice Party
Candidates: Gareth Ballard, Robyn Soxsmith (Brindabella); Carolyne Drew, Lara Drew (Ginninderra); Walter Kudrycz, Teresa McTaggart (Kurrajong); Gwenda Griffiths, Ashleigh Griffiths-Smith (Murrumbidgee); Joanne McKinley (Yerrabi)
Website: https://act.animaljusticeparty.org/
In the context of this particular election, the Animal Justice Party is committed to ending the ACT government’s cruel and environmentally catastrophic annual kangaroo slaughter. We are also deeply concerned about the loss of our beautiful Bush Capital, due to rampant infill, and removal of our natural land managers, the kangaroos.
The Animal Justice Party (AJP) has three main campaign platforms.
First is to end the Labor/Greens coalition’s kangaroo “cull”.
Killing entire kangaroo and wallaby families, and bashing joeys to death is inexcusably cruel. Not only is it unnecessary, it is actively damaging to the biodiversity of our remaining wildlife habitat. Kangaroos are Australia’s natural grassland managers. So killing them gradually kills all the other animals and plants who rely on the ecological services they provide. We can see the degradation caused by the absence of kangaroos in the overgrown plant infestation occurring in Canberra reserves since the kangaroo slaughter began.
First and foremost, I will advocate:
- For repeal of the ill-advised legislation which currently requires the government to kill these beautiful, harmless families;
- For the building of a series of vegetated wildlife overpasses, together with appropriate fencing, to reduce and ultimately eliminate altogether the risk of collisions between motor vehicles and wildlife;
- For much stricter controls and sanctions on development proposals in the ACT, including requirements for developers to cover the costs of protecting biodiversity, for example by funding wildlife overpasses.
Secondly, to introduce a program called Veticare into Canberra. Veticare is affordable healthcare for animals. It adopts the bulk-billing model for low-income earners and pensioners, so no-one ever has to face the heartbreaking choice between paying for their pet’s care or putting food on their own table. The Animal Justice Party has already introduced the Veticare program into Parliament, with great success, in Victoria.
Thirdly, on behalf of ACT voters, to lobby the Federal Government to end live export for ALL animals and to ensure the Federal Government meets its election promise to end the live sheep export by 2028.
In case you were wondering, the Animal Justice Party is certainly not a single-issue party. Aside from advocating for justice for all animals in all situations – which itself covers several thousand distinct issues – the AJP has comprehensive policies that cover not only animals, but also the environment, and all issues that affect human wellbeing.
“What is good for animals is good for people.”
In addition to the above main platforms, we are concerned about the neglect of Canberra under the ACT Labor/Greens coalition government. We are especially worried about road safety issues, such as the poor state of Canberra’s roads, the lack of speed limit enforcement, and the urgent need for better street lighting and footpaths. We would also like to see a reduction in noise pollution from hoon vehicles, and stronger regulation for e-scooters.
If you care about animals, the environment and people, please give us your number one vote.
Belco Party
Candidates: Angela Lount, Bill Stefaniak, Alan Tutt (Ginninderra); Gregory Burke, Jason Taylor (Yerrabi)
Website: https://www.belcoparty.org/
To paraphrase Jon Stanhope, Labor’s greatest Chief Minister, who appeared on TV last week with his predecessors Gary Humphries and the great Liberal former CM Kate Carnell, 23 years in government is too long, and after that time, the governing party needs to be put out for a spell. Gary and Kate said something similar – and the Belco Party says amen to that!
I have said before that in the last 12 years, since they got into bed with the Greens, this government has not been a good government. They have lumbered the ACT with a huge debt that will need to be paid off, and paying it off won’t be pretty. They have spent money that should have gone to health and police on a silly tram. They have presided over ministerial incompetence (e.g. Campbell Primary school, CIT) – wastage of money that would have led to the relevant minister being sacked had it been a government led by either Kate or Jon, our two best CMs.
Crazy Green ideology in relation to decriminalizing small quantities of hard drugs; seeking to raise the age of criminal intent to 14 years; botched and cruel kangaroo culls; and doing nothing to prevent a 389-hectare nightmare solar factory being built only 500 metres north of the ACT West Belconnen border are only a few of the bad calls this tired, arrogant government has made.
You try seeing a government member outside of the election period, let alone a minster. The government takes you for granted, and will if elected again. Why shouldn’t it, if you don’t vote for other candidates? Voters get the governments they deserve, and from what I’m seeing at pre-polling, many people seem quite comfortable in not changing anything.
There is still time to change the government, even though by the time you read this article, 50 per cent of the electors will have voted. But I urge voters to try something different. It’s simple. DO NOT PUT ANY NUMBERS IN THE GREEN OR LABOR BOXES. If enough of you do that, the government will have to change. It doesn’t really matter who forms the next government as long as it’s not Greens and/or Labor.
There are good people standing for the Liberals: Elizabeth Lee, Leanne Castley, Jeremy Hanson, Mark Parton, Ed Cocks, James Milligan, and Peter Cain, plus talented newcomers like Mick Calatzis, Darren Roberts, Joe Prevedello.
For the independents: Ann Bray and Peter Strong (Strong Independents), Jason Taylor, Greg Burke, Angela Lount, Alan Tutt (Belco Party); Elizabeth Kikkert (Family First); Sneha KC, David Pollard, Leanne Foresti, Mark Richardson, Tom Emerson (Canberra Independents); and Paul House (First Nations).
Finally, I remind voters of some of the Belco Party’s main policies: Can the tram and spend the money on fixing the hospitals, get 250 extra police, free public transport, and build the Chick Henry Canberra International Motorsport and Driver Training facility and transport hub. Conduct an independent review of kangaroo culling and the justice system (to fix up problems with bail and sentencing especially).
Come on, folks – give these people a go. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Canberra Liberals
Candidates: James Daniels, Rosa Harber, Sandi Mitra, Deborah Morris, Mark Parton (Brindabella); Chiaka Barry, Peter Cain, Joe Prevedello, Darren Roberts (Ginninderra); Ramon Bouckaert, Efthimios Calatzis, Elizabeth Lee, Sarah Luscombe, Patrick Pentony (Kurrajong); Ed Cocks, Jeremy Hanson, Elyse Heslehurst, Amardeep Singh, Karen Walsh (Murrumbidgee); Leanne Castley, Ralitsa Dimitrova, John Mikita, James Milligan, Krishna Nadimpalli (Yerrabi)
Website: https://www.canberraliberals.org.au/
Democratic Labour Party
Candidates: Douglas Cooper, Helen Crowe, Rick Howard, Maxwell Spencer, John Vanderburgh (Ginninderra); Belinda Haley, Boston White (Kurrajong); Michael Hanna, Colin Jory (Yerrabi)
Website: https://dlp.org.au/branches/act/
Labour (DLP) is a traditional Labour party that broke away from the ALP many years ago as we believed it was moving too far to the left.
We regard ourselves as the true successors to the working-class Labour party of Ben Chifley and John Curtin.
Our policies are very much in line with those of the Labor party of Bob Hawke, 30 years ago, before it became pre-occupied with race, gender and climate alarmism.
At the ACT election, Labour (DLP) presents a policy program which we believe strongly supports traditional Labour values and is aimed at significantly improving the lives of working families.
Our key policies are all about making housing and energy more affordable, about cutting the cost of living generally, and about ending the ACT’s crime wave.
Specifically, on housing affordability our key policies are to massively increase the supply of land for home building, selling land at a fixed price of $500 per sqm to first home buyers, imposing a 30 per cent stamp duty on foreign property buyers, financially supporting build-to-rent unit construction, and increasing public housing stocks to the OECD average. We want to reverse the ALP-Greens government mandate that 70 per cent of new land developments go to units and instead provide more home building blocks in line with what most Canberra families want. We also plan to offer public housing for sale to its tenants, granting them their last 10 years rent as a deposit, which will also save the ACT tens of millions of dollars in maintenance costs on old public housing stock.
We plan to build a gas-fired power station in the ACT to provide low cost and reliable baseload energy supply and provide $500 traditional energy rebates to households without rooftop solar to compensate them for the higher energy costs they pay to subsidise those who have solar panels.
We plan to lower rates by 25 per cent and then cap future increases to CPI increases only.
As an alternative to paid childcare, we will introduce a $35,000 a year means-test free Homemakers Allowance to be paid to stay-at-home mums to look after their own kids.
We also plan to build a free state dental clinic to provide free dental care to low-income earners and age pensioners.
We want to reverse the ALP-Greens raising of the age of criminal responsibility to 14 and instead take it back down to 10; we want to reverse the ALP-Greens legalisation of hard drugs; we want to introduce mandatory jail terms for violent crime including car-jackings, home invasions and assault; and we want to build a Borstal-style reform school to reform repeat youth offenders before they become career criminals.
We urge previous ACT Labor voters who are not happy with the current ALP-Greens government’s hard left policy agenda to instead consider voting for us, a traditional Labour party, and to view our full range of policies on our website at www.dlp.org.au/elections/ or on our Democratic Labour Party ACT Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DLPACT/
Family First
Candidates: Bruce Gartshore, Merle Graham(Brindabella); Sunil Baby, Elizabeth Kikkert, Andrew Wallace (Ginninderra); Andrew Charles Adair, Jenny Hentzschel (Kurrajong); Andrew Copp, Andy Verri (Murrumbidgee); Greg Amos, Henry Kivimaki (Yerrabi)
Website: https://www.familyfirstact.org.au/
Family First is fighting to reduce the cost-of-living pressure on Canberra families.
That’s why Family First’s signature policy is to halve household rates over the next four years.
If Family First candidates led by a re-elected Elizabeth Kikkert hold the balance of power, they will support the party of government committed to halving rates.
This policy will cost the government approximately $49 million in the first year, and around $52 million in the second.
It can be paid for because both parties are spending billions on projects that families are paying for but need not: a tram to Woden costing over $4 billion and a stadium in Civic costing $3 billion.
There’s plenty of other wasteful spending that can be cut to pay for halving rates and relieving cost of living pressure on families.
Other examples are:
- $80 million dollars on a scrapped HR system
- over $8 million on a ‘complexity thinker’
- over $1.5 million to rebrand Canberra Health Services; and
- $400 million on interest payments alone.
One of the biggest causes of family breakdown is the financial stress mums and dads find themselves under.
That’s why halving rates in the first term is our priority.
Family First’s vision is for ACT families to flourish by putting mums, dads and kids at the centre of policy-making.
If it is good for the family, it is good for Canberra.
Parents are increasingly worried about ideology in schools, and Family First will fight for a return to teaching kids the basics.
People of faith were shocked when their government forced the takeover of a Catholic hospital and ripped the cross of Christ from it.
Family First will fight for freedom of religion and speech against an increasingly totalitarian Labor-Green government.
Family First will introduce legislation to ensure the property of faith-based services can never be forcibly taken over by the government again.
While Family First is a party for people of all faiths and none, its core values are unashamedly those of the Judeo-Christian ethic which is the basis of Western civilisation and Australia’s founding.
Family First’s goal is to place principled women and men of courage into the Territory Parliament to shift political priorities to favour family, freedom, faith and life.
People should vote for Family First because it is the only party that will prioritise the family, as understood for millennia, as the building block of strong communities.
Fiona Carrick Independent
Candidates: Fiona Carrick, Marea Fatseas, Bruce Paine (Murrumbidgee)
Website: https://www.fionacarrick.com/
First Nations Party
Candidates: Rhiannon Connors, Thaddeus Connors, Paul Girrawah House, Harrison Pike, Jessika Spencer (Kurrajong); Lisa Barnes, Michael Duncan, Kye Moggridge, Cooper Pike, Tyson Powell (Yerrabi)
Website: https://firstnationsparty.org.au/
Independents for Canberra
Candidates: Riley Fernandes, Vanessa Picker, Elise Searson (Brindabella); Leanne Foresti, Suzanne Nucifora, Mark Richardson (Ginninderra); Thomas Emerson, Ben Johnston, Tenzin Mayne, Sara Poguet, Sue Read (Kurrajong); Kathleen Bolt, Anne-Louise Dawes, Robert Knight, Paula McGrady, Nathan Naicker (Murrumbidgee); Sneha KC, Vikram Kulkarni, David Pollard, Trent Pollard (Yerrabi)
Website: https://www.independentsforcanberra.com/
Politicians need to be far more responsive to our community. What we’ve heard from people across the ACT is that the three major parties, entrenched figuratively along their party lines, and occupationally with the help of the Hare-Clarke electoral system, have failed to provide the level of accountability, transparency and action that Canberrans expect.
The Independents for Canberra movement emerged from this frustration, offering our community a new approach to governance focused on ensuring the next government is held to a much higher standard.
We have no intention of forming part of a coalition government, as this would dilute our ability to operate independently and critically assess government decisions. Instead, we will use our position on the crossbench to apply scrutiny and constructive pressure, ensuring that good ideas are implemented and bad ones are discarded.
People are tired of reactive short-termism from our politicians and want to see more long-term policymaking focused on the prosperity of current and future generations of Canberrans. We will introduce a Future Generations Act requiring the development of a community-led vision for the Canberra we want for generations to come, and the appointment of a Future Generations Commissioner tasked with ensuring government decisions align with that vision.
Housing affordability and availability, particularly for our most vulnerable community members, is a top priority. With the highest rate of persistent homelessness in the country, action is long overdue. We are committed to establishing a social housing funding trigger that will provide Housing ACT with the funding needed to transform our social housing system in such a way as to reduce public housing wait times to 30 days for priority housing by 2030. Women facing violence in their own homes are being told to “wait it out”, here in Canberra, because we don’t have a house for them. That needs to change.
In healthcare, we will bring in a private provider to clear 75 percent of the elective surgery waitlist within the first 12 months. In education, we are committed to implementing, in full, the Strong Foundations education reform program within four years. We will also commission a comprehensive independent inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system, ensuring a fair and just system for all Canberrans. With Australia’s highest reoffending rates, wide-ranging reform is needed to create a criminal justice system that actually rehabilitates offenders.
All Independents for Canberra candidates have made a commitment to improve the ACT’s jurisdictional competitiveness for local businesses, including by tackling high insurance costs. We aim to create an environment where homegrown businesses can thrive. We are also pushing to revitalise Canberra’s cultural vibrancy and nightlife through the establishment of a Night-Time Economy Commissioner.
We have issued a clear Statement of Expectations voicing the concerns and priorities of our community, and we are ready to ensure that the next government delivers on what matters most to Canberrans.
We can make history at this year’s ACT Election by electing independents for the first time in 26 years. If you want to see positive change, and a better way of doing politics, vote for your local Independents for Canberra candidates.
Libertarian Party
Candidates: Guy Jakeman, Arved Von Brasch (Ginninderra)
Website: https://www.libertarians.org.au/act
Strong Independents
Candidates: Ann Bray, Peter Strong (Kurrajong)
Website: https://www.strongindependents.com.au/
Ann Bray and Peter Strong bring something that is missing from the Assembly – comprehensive and proven knowledge and experience across nearly all sectors of society.
Importantly, they have shown that they understand how communities function and how to empower communities. This skill is enhanced by broad knowledge and experience – from the embassy in Washington to World Bank and UN work in developing economies, working in medical science, education, coaching local sports teams, running small businesses, employing people, participating in the senior levels of government, working with the media to enhance communications, providing addresses to the National Press Club, dealing with politics at all levels including with many Prime Ministers, ministers of state, senior and junior public servants; and the joy and reward that comes with working at the community level, dealing with that level of politics and the mainly great giving people who want a better future for everyone.
They have what we need: experience, gumption and knowledge. Combined with an understanding that comes from a lifetime of consultation, policy development, communications and respect.
The policies they have worked with include: tertiary education, health, climate change, innovation, small business, regulatory reform, industry development, mental health, higher education, vocational training and many others. Ann and Peter are genuine, and have been accused of being Labor or Liberal, and are neither of those things – nor Green. They do, however, embrace the good policies of those parties, but reject the factions and tribalism that so often bring those parties down.
Their policies specific to the election include: a Strata Commissioner with the needed powers to provide certainty and transparency for owners of units and strata titled property; an independent infrastructure commissioner so we know whether major infrastructure projects stack up; greater funding support for the community sector and local community councils; much more social housing and other strategies to solve the housing crisis; faster implementation of literacy and numeracy reform; focussing on removing costs and administrative burden on small business,; a budget for municipal services that doesn’t get raided; and many others.
They don’t just talk about transparency, they know how to make it happen. Key government KPIs and performance data would be published regularly in the ‘Our Canberra’ newsletter that is delivered every month to every letterbox in the ACT – with QR links for those who want more information immediately. This would include health KPIs, education outcomes, municipal services and community outcomes. All government websites would be reviewed for ease of use. All government directorates would be assessed every two years on their interaction with stakeholders, and those results published. Cabinet minutes would be published within 10 days of a cabinet meeting.
Strong Independents want a strong future for all Canberra, and will provide a strong voice.
Ungrouped candidates
Emmanuel Ezekiel-Hart (Brindabella); Mignonne Cullen, Janine Haskins (Ginninderra); Marilena Damiano (Kurrajong); Rima Diab (Murrumbidgee); Mohammad Munir Hussain, Fuxin Li (Yerrabi)
