Ellisa Parker, The Greens
1. What is your stance on climate change and your policies regarding it?
The Greens have a plan to reach 100 per cent publicly owned renewables by 2030, with free retraining, a job guarantee and supported wages for workers. If the major parties keep approving new coal, oil and gas, food, insurance, energy and health costs will go up, we’ll see more flooding, fires and drought, and over a million jobs in industries including tourism and farming will be at risk. We see this as negligence to the Australian people.
2. How do you plan on ensuring the safety of the roads in the Southern Downs?
The Greens’ $500M annual investment in active transport infrastructure will help fund more safe crossings and separated bike lanes to reduce risks for pedestrians and cyclists. We’ll also provide $190M for flood-affected communities to rebuild and upgrade critical infrastructure like damaged roads, and allow Councils to sue coal and gas companies for repairs after climate-driven severe weather events.
3. What are your policies regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)?
A fully funded National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has great potential to transform disabled people’s lives, but it needs to be more transparent, consultative and accountable.
The Greens have a comprehensive plan to improve the NDIS by:
Removing the staffing cap
Upgrading IT systems and interfaces
Properly resourcing compliance and investigation through the Quality and Safeguards Commission
Removing the age limit for people over 65
4. How will you combat the rising cost of living?
We need to increase wages and properly fund basic services like health, education and housing. In the balance of power, the Greens will push to bring dental and mental health under Medicare, make childcare, uni and TAFE free, and build 1 million affordable homes over 20 years. We’d also legislate to raise the minimum wage to 60 per cent of the median wage and raise all income support payments above the poverty line to $88 a day.
5. What are your policies regarding the Ag Visa?
Where labour shortages exist, the Greens insist that we should advertise and provide free skills training locally first, and restrict temporary working visas only to fill genuine skill shortages or enable important international collaboration. Due to unaddressed concerns about seasonal worker exploitation, we opposed the new agriculture visa scheme in the Senate. The government should work with unions and employers to negotiate a guest worker framework, ensuring Australian pay rates and enforced local legal standards.
6. How will you and your party support our growers, given the rising costs of production?
The Greens will reinstate the $25M/year Carbon Farming Futures grants scheme, assisting growers to implement sustainable and regenerative agricultural systems and practices which can reduce input costs from synthetic fertilisers and herbicides. Because we refuse corporate donations, including from Coles and Woolies, we can fight for farmers to get fair compensation for their produce. Our plans to protect the environment will support clean air and water and healthy soil for current and future growers.
