2024 QLD state election: Emma Buhse Greens candidate for Gympie

A new challenger for the seat of Gympie at the upcoming state election brings with her a unique perspective and personal experience of the hardships impacting many Australians.

Gympie’s Emma Buhse has thrown her hat into the ring for the October state election, revealing she is standing as the region’s Greens candidate to challenge incumbent LNP MP Tony Perrett.

Gympie woman Emma Buhse has thrown her hat into the ring for the October 26, state election, revealing she is standing as the region’s Greens candidate to challenge incumbent LNP MP Tony Perrett.

Ms Buhse, who grew up on the Sunshine Coast and moved to Gympie in 2004, announced her candidacy in a social media post on Wednesday afternoon.

She was driven by a desire to help people who had “fallen through supposed ‘safety nets’” of society, she said.

In the post she said she regularly witnessed “the unfortunate and real consequences of when that system doesn’t work and (I want to) continue to assist those (affected) to safety and stability”.

“As a person with a disability, I understand the pressures of trying to survive on a minimum income and how it impacts us every day as individuals and as a whole,” Ms Buhse said.

Gympie’s Emma Buhse has thrown her hat into the ring for the October state election, revealing she is standing as the region’s Greens candidate to challenge incumbent LNP MP Tony Perrett.

Ms Buhse, who has never stood for election at any level of government before, joins Labor candidate Lachlan Anderson and One Nation candidate Kay McCallum in contesting the Gympie seat held by Mr Perrett since 2015.

Mr Perrett retained the seat in 2020, with 42 per cent of the primary vote.

Labor’s Geoff Williams was the next closest candidate that year, gaining 28 per cent of the vote, with One Nation’s Michael Blaxland the only other candidate to hit double figures on the primary vote, with 12 per cent.

Greens candidate Emma Buhse, who has never stood for election at any level of government before, joins Labor’s Lachlan Anderson and One Nation’s Kay McCallum as candidates vying to unseat Mr Perrett, who has held it since 2015.

Ms Buhse outlined several of the Greens’ major statewide policy platforms in her post, including making “big corporations pay their fair share in tax and then use that revenue to build 100,000 public homes”, along with rent caps and freezes and free education.

“We’re all being heavily affected by the cost of living and housing crisis (I have even been homeless myself), youth safety issues, lack of affordable education and mental and physical health supports in regional (and) rural areas especially and the real and sobering effects of climate change.”

She said the two major parties “continue to ignore their constituents’ plight”.

“They’re putting the money and the greed of a few over the well-being and stability of the majority.”