General News
16 October, 2024
Candidates are ready
HAVING experienced the hardships of the housing crisis himself, Green’s candidate for Cairns Josh Holt wants to put the community’s housing needs front and centre, pitching new rental reform and mortgages policies.
This will be the first dig in politics for 39-year-old Josh Holt from Edge Hill, who has worked in the cultural and arts industry in the region and is running to help address the housing crisis.
“I’ve seen inequality and homelessness rise, and as a society we need to do better,” he said.
“I’ve had to move about once a year for the last four years because of the rental market crisis, so as part of the Greens cost of living and the housing crisis are going to be central.”
Mr Holt and the Greens propose to create a Queensland public bank to cut mortgage interest rates, guaranteed lease renewals for good tenants and rent freezes.
“The vacancy rates have been under one per cent almost every month in the last three years. In the electorate of Cairns, 60 per cent of households are renters, and for those people rent has increased 30-40 per cent in the last years. We can do better,” he said.
“The big four banks are making about $30 billion profit annually, a state-owned bank can offer interest rates for about 1.5 per cent less.
“Rental freezes would be managed by the Rental Tenancies Authority, and it would be set by the property.
“Wages are rising nowhere near as quickly as rents are rising so we need time for wages to catch up to these cost of living rises.”
Under the Greens’ plan Agents and property investors would also be required to offer a lease renewal at the end of all fixed term leases, only to be refused if owners needed to move into the property or if tenants weren’t paying rent and damaging the property.
“There’s too much focus on the rights of these large corporations at the expense of people, their rights and freedoms. We will put people first,” Mr Holt said.
Ian Floyd - Independent
A JACK of all trades, Aloomba’s resident Ian Floyd aims to bring change for Mulgrave in the upcoming state elections as an independent candidate with grassroots plans for the fishing industry, youth crime and cost of living.
Having lived in Tropical North Queensland for 33 years and with an extensive background in different industries like horticulture, tourism and sport as a tennis and footy coach, Mr Floyd says he understands what the community is going through and that it’s time for a change.
“I’m a businessman going for his first political dig,” he said.
“What pushed me to run was an incident where a young fella, 26, – friend and worker - got bashed at one of the local service stations in Gordonvale.
“He had his head kicked within an inch of his life, my son is 26, that could’ve been my son.
“So, I decided it was time to bring some positive change.”
At the centre of Mr Floyd’s campaign is a reform to the fishing industries which he says can also help the cost-of-living crisis.
“In a nutshell, we catch our fish here in Australia and the far north and for some reason we send it overseas to be processed, we then buy it back from them and there’s a major difference in the cost when we buy back,” he said.
“There’s got to be a change as far as processing goes, it’s about producing jobs and setting up processing plants so that the fish can be processed here, this will make cost of living go down, we produce jobs, and we get cheaper and probably fresher fish.”
Mr Floyd also has grassroot programs that he’d like to implement to address the rampant youth crime crisis in the region.
“There’s three stages to my plan,” he said.
“First is prevention through programs. I had one 18 months ago called Give Back Australia which I presented to Gordonvale and the Cook Shire Council and it was well accepted.
“The programs aim to get the youth doing meaningful work, like farm work, looking after cattle or horses, building fences, mechanical work, etc.
“We’ve all done silly things when we were young so it’s about diverting them from the problems by giving back to the community.
Ben Campbell - Katter Party
A NAVY veteran of 15 years, with a love of shooting came to the region after the pandemic, because he shared the same “unique set of values” of the Far North.
Speaking at the Katter Australia Party Barron River candidate launch on Tuesday, candidate Ben Campbell said he was passionate about protecting the way of life in North Queensland.
“During the lockdowns and mandates imposed on us by the major parties, I relocated to Cairns, knowing that the Freedom Focused North Queensland Community shares a unique set of values. Our way of life is precious and must be protected at any cost, and I’m here to do that,” he said.
“I am unashamedly an active sporting shooter, and have enjoyed pastimes such as 4WDing, camping, fishing, and hunting – our way of life here in FNQ is underpinned by our freedom to enjoy these pastimes, and I’m passionate about protecting our rights to do so from the woke brigade out of Brisbane.” the KAP candidate said.
Kap Federal Member for Kennedy told the launch the electorate had a fierce and dedicated community member ready to represent the Barron River constituency.
“He’s got a tiger in his tank that is for certain,” Mr Katter said.
“It never ceases to surprise me that blokes like Ben join KAP with such acrimony. He, like almost every other North Queenslander, has just had a gut full of seeing all the freedoms taken off North Queensland again, and again, and again.
“He’s going to serve up a brutal fight this election. I’d be worried if I was running against him.”
His support was echoed by KAP Leader, Robbie Katter, who said the political tide was clearly shifting, and the people of Far North Queensland and Barron River had a real choice.
“The Labor government and their so-called local members are clearly on the nose, but voting LNP is still a vote for Brisbane. Brisbane focussed, wasteful Brisbane spending, and Brisbane control,” he said.
