Restoring Faith In Our Political System!

Media Release

21 February 2007

A representative is a person who makes decisions in accordance with their conscience and their mandate.  A representative is not a delegate, or a person who makes decisions in accordance with instructions he or she is given.

Independents do not destroy representative government, they enhance it.  They are there to correct government when it strays from being truly representative.  If elected I aim to take immediate steps to restore some of the faith so many people have lost in our political system.  I will be calling for:

• The conversion of our token State Plan into a real business plan with definite targets and long term policies to achieve them.  The need for this is never more apparent than just before an election, when quick fix promises suddenly come think and fast:  look around and see what is happening right now!
• Real planning, which means having plans that the government cannot circumvent on a whim.  A current case in point is the agreement two weeks ago of the States and Territories to implement a national carbon trading scheme by 2010, something the Federal Government should have been aiming at.  But to help it establish a steelworks at Port Kembla, our State Government has granted Bluescope Steel an exemption from its carbon trading scheme and future carbon taxes.  So much for a real plan....
• A reduction in the number of taxpayer funded consultancy reports and a requirement that the cost of those reports be announced when they are commissioned.
• A requirement that virtually all consultancy reports are made available to the public as soon as they are completed, irrespective of whether or not parliament is in session.  The only exceptions should be reports dealing with matters like State security.
• All electoral allowances to be publicly accounted for:  the simplest way is for acceptable claims to be paid or reimbursed on production of accounts or receipts and for the public to have access to those records.
• The Government to provide an in-house update of MPs emoluments and do so every three years, with the information being publicly available.
• Legislation offsetting against the pension entitlements of any ex-politician who accepts a Crown appointment the remuneration attached to that appointment.  Ex MPs should not be permitted to double-dip from the public purse.
• MPs salaries being tied rigidly to State wage levels and not rising faster than average weekly earnings.
• Review of all tax minimisation rules for parliamentary superannuation schemes.

I also propose to call for any revisions of the State constitution, any proposed sale or other effective privatisation of public assets and any handing over of State powers to the Federal Government being decided by the direct vote of the people.