Wagstaffe Hall campaign pitch

As has become custom in recent elections, the main candidates for the seat of Robertson were invited to speak to the community at the Wagstaffe Hall on Monday, April 28.

Due to the public rally condemning violence against women in the wake of the horrific death of 19-year-old Audrey Griffin, representatives of the two major parties were unable to attend.

This left a smaller contingent of The Greens’ Cheryl Wallace and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) candidate, Matthew Lloyd, to front the people.

Lloyd, a resident of Bateau Bay who has lived on the Coast for 30 years, has a background in manufacturing.

He acknowledged Pauline Hanson could be ‘polarising’ but said she had been consistent in her policy prescriptions.

“At least you know where you stand with her,” he said.

Lloyd said that many of the major parties’ policies were in fact lifted from PHON, notably the removal of alcohol excise, a 50 per cent cut in fuel excise and providing better access to housing for youth, including the ability to access their super for a home deposit.

A core focus of PHON however, according to Lloyd, is to address the spiralling level of public debt, which already posed an incredible burden on future generations.

Lloyd said he believed it was important to ensure taxpayers’ money was not being wasted.

This included abolishing the Department of Climate Change and the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

With respect to housing, One Nation is committed to reducing the cost of new homes including a five-year GST moratorium on building materials used in new homes and a review of excessive government charges that it claims make up to 44% of the cost of new homes.

Lloyd condemned what happened in Melbourne on Anzac Day and said there was a place for the Aboriginal flag and Welcome to Country, but supported Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s position that the Welcome to Country was overused.

Not surprisingly, Lloyd was challenged over PHON’s position on climate change.

He argued that Australia could be considered “better than carbon neutral” because our natural forests absorb more carbon than we emit.

According to the PHON website, One Nation believes Australia should withdraw from the United Nations Paris Agreement.

The most important initiative for the Central Coast, Lloyd said, was to ensure the provision of a local Maternity Ward.

Cheryl Wallace has been a registered nurse for 45 years, a mum with three kids, and a Director of Education at one of the local surf clubs.

She reiterated The Greens mantra, “if you want change, you need to vote for it”.

She added that the two major parties were both beholden to large political donors.

Naturally, Wallace advocated for a more proactive approach to tackling climate change – for The Greens, this includes stopping all new coal and gas developments.

She also lamented the lack of affordable housing, especially for young people, and advocated for the removal of negative gearing, saying that she has nothing against property investment, but that we shouldn’t be using taxpayers’ money to help property developers.

“Average house prices are now around nine times annual income … they were around three times average incomes in the 1980s,” she said.

Wallace said young people these days had the added burden of HECS debt.

When challenged about previously voting against the Albanese government’s housing policy, she said that the policy was not designed to do what it needed to do and that The Greens had set about seeking revisions, including setting aside $500M for social housing, rather than blocking the bill.

She said, more generally, The Greens had demonstrated their ability to work constructively with a minority government during the Julia Gillard-led minority ALP government.

Ross Barry