Wentworth 2018: Your guide to Deb Doyle’s policies
THE Wentworth by-election is on this Saturday with a large field of candidates. Our complete guide is the only place to get in depth coverage of local and national policies of all 16 candidates. Here is everything you need to know about the Animal Justice Party’s Deb Doyle and how she compares to other candidates.
Wentworth Courier
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THE Wentworth by-election is on this Saturday with a large field of candidates. Our complete guide is the only place to get in depth coverage of local and national policies of all 16 candidates. Here is everything you need to know about the Animal Justice Party’s Deb Doyle and how she compares to other candidates.
SEE OUR INTERACTIVE BELOW
BIOGRAPHY
DEB Doyle says she lives in Dover Heights with her daughter and their female ‘calico’ cat and also has two adult sons.
She says she runs three successful businesses: Living Proof — Book Editing, Editorial Training Services, and Draw On.
And, she says, she regularly teaches grammar, punctuation and editing at the Centre for Continuing Education which is part of the University of Sydney, the Australian Writers’ Centre and WEA Sydney.
Since 2003, Deb says she has been publishing her text-workbook Grey Areas and Gremlins: A grammar and punctuation refresher.
She says that in 2002, she contributed the short story Minnie and Me to the anthology Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women’s Lives, published by Spinifex Press.
In recent years, Deb says, she has regularly written columns about grammar, punctuation and editing for Government News and Newswrite as well as articles about veganism for the former national magazine Vegan Voice.
She says that in 2010, the Powerhouse Museum acquired The Deb Doyle Music Archive, a collection representing her lifetime of productivity.
Q&A
1. Do you think we need a new public secondary school in the Wentworth electorate?
Yes. The electorate’s sole public secondary school, Rose Bay Secondary College, is at capacity, its enrolments are continuing to increase, and the new Inner Sydney High School being built in Surry Hills will be too far away from many of the electorate’s suburbs.
2. What are your thoughts on the current rate of development?
Development is inevitable because the electorate is in a very desirable location, but local residents and councils — not property developers or the Minister for Planning — must have control over what type of development it will be and where the development will be.
3. Do you support the proposed development in the national park at South Head?
No. South Head and Watsons Bay should be protected from commercial development because they’re the heritage gateway to the Harbour, and we need to protect our remaining green spaces for humans and native animals so people can enjoy the peace and quiet of a national park rather than have to dodge delivery trucks and patrons attending commercial events.
4. Should we make changes to negative gearing?
Any changes should be evidence based, and the outcomes should be maximisation of housing availability and affordability as well as non-retrospective application of any changes whereby people who based their investment/s on already existing laws would not by unfairly affected.
5. What are the key elements of your tax policy?
The three main elements are cessation of subsidies, grants and taxation benefits for industries in which animals are exploited. Also the provision of ‘tax deductible’ status for not-for-profit animal-welfare organisations.
And the introduction of a tax on animal products that is commensurate with their adverse impacts on people’s health and the environment.
6. Do you have a stance on corporate political donations?
Yes. Al donations to all political parties should be transparent, and members of the public should be able to access the records easily.
Personally, I certainly wouldn’t be averse to accepting a campaign donation from an ethical business or corporation that my party and I didn’t have a conflict of interest with.
7. What is the most important health-related issue?
Preventive health programs should be introduced for improvement of people’s health and wellbeing, and should include nutrition-education programs in which the benefits of a plant-based diet are promoted and unnecessary and expensive public funding of drugs — including research into drugs for addressing diseases that people can best manage by making healthier lifestyle choices — is ended.
8. What support should be given to businesses?
My party and I will lobby to establish a national ‘sovereign wealth’ fund, similar to the Future Fund, for providing funding to enable scientists and farmers to shift from using animals to using innovative new technologies and producing plant-based foods.
9. What emphasis should be placed on funding to the arts?
The future of Australia’s economy lies in creative industries; therefore, government should both support and fund the arts, especially in the case of creative groups that are outside the major arts institutions, so diverse voices have a chance to be heard.
10. How should Australia proceed with regards to immigration?
Any immigration policy must both have zero impact on wildlife and the natural environment and include an approach to migrants that’s based on compassion — including provision for family reunion — whereby birth rates should be kept either at or below zero and any migration-based population increase is managed within existing urban boundaries.
11. Should we change how we process asylum seekers?
Yes. Australia should comply with the international treaties the government has ratified, and when refugees arrive on Australian territory, they shouldn’t be prevented from accessing their rights, including not being removed to a country other than one that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has approved.
12. What action should be taken with regard to climate change?
The Australian Government has to acknowledge that animal agriculture constitutes 15 per cent of greenhouse-gas emissions by way of methane production, and has to develop a policy for transitioning from animal agriculture to plant-based agriculture.
13. Do you support live-animal export?
No. My party’s policy is to ban export of any and all live animals — no exceptions.
14. Do you think we need to tackle law and order differently?
Yes. The problem of animal cruelty and neglect is serious and widespread, and we need to establish specialist services, including a Federal Animal Rights Commission, so offenders can be investigated and prosecuted.
15. How should we continue to move towards reconciliation with indigenous people?
We need to acknowledge the wrongs our indigenous people suffered in the past, the loss of their lands, the stolen generations, and the disrespect and destruction of their lore and language, and to seek a way forward by genuinely consulting with indigenous people themselves.
■ Simply click on your chosen candidate’s name below or on their photograph in our interactive and all will be revealed.
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