Fadden by-election: What all 13 candidates have been saying
From a public bank to a double-decker M1, candidates in the Fadden by-election have been making their pitches to voters. Read our guide to what all 13 have been saying.
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
From a public bank to a double-decker M1, candidates in the Fadden by-election have been making their pitches to voters ahead of polling day on Saturday July 15.
Read our guide to what all 13 have been saying, listed in the order they will appear on the ballot paper.
Letitia Del Fabbro
Australian Labor Party
This is the second election outing for Ms Del Fabbro, a lecturer in nursing, who secured 22.4 per cent of first preference votes for Labor in last year’s Federal election. She lists improving access to affordable healthcare as her chief priority, saying at a candidate forum that the LNP had “a history of having cut Medicare and Aged Care”. “These are things that are important to me as a local mum and a registered nurse,” she said. “We need strong Labor policies to help support our way of life including well-supported Medicare, cheaper childcare and good aged care.” History is against her - Labor held the seat once, 40 years ago.
Scott Turner
The Greens
Mr Turner has a background in biological science, which he says has driven a “strong desire” to preserve Fadden’s green spaces and biodiversity. He has been working to highlight Greens policies on the cost of living crisis, saying the government needed to go “further and faster” with affordable housing and bring electricity back into public ownership. “40 per cent of your bill is profit to a private company,” he said. He also said the Greens wished to bring dental and mental health into Medicare. “All of those things are things the Greens can offer the community,” he said.
Chris Simpson
Australian Democrats
The Queensland resident of 20 years worked in FIFO roles, is from a migrant family and says he is running to “give back” to a community he is “forever grateful to” for the opportunities it has given him. He says his focus for this election is affordable housing, a stronger economy, reduced emissions and smarter, self-sufficient defence. Mr Simpson said if elected he would make “real leadership by federal government” his priority, with an aim of providing 100,000 affordable homes and 100,000 social housing units.
Sandy Roach
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation
The accountant and mother of four has put a strong emphasis on helping small businesses. “They need much better support from our governments, such as wiser investments in public infrastructure, reduced taxes and reduced red tape,” she said. Ms Roach said the housing crisis was being fuelled by higher immigration. She said One Nation would address the crisis by lowering immigration and banning foreign ownership of residential property. “This will put a lot of housing on the market for Australians,” she said.
Marnie Laree Davis
Indigenous – Aboriginal Party of Australia
Described as a passionate Aboriginal community worker and advocate, she has worked for several years in the Aboriginal family wellbeing and social health field and in domestic violence refuges. She is seeking increased support for domestic violence prevention services, and has put forward a number of ideas to help solve the housing crisis. “By electing me as a member of the Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia, voters will support the only political party that’s First Nations, that’s grass roots, and isn’t about ego or money,” she says. “This party is about truth telling, community outcomes and protecting country.”
Suzette Luyken
Legalise Cannabis Australia
The longstanding Legalise Cannabis Australia committee member says she believes every Australian should have the choice to consume cannabis socially or medically “without being treated like criminals” – something she has been campaigning for across more than 20 years. Ms Luyken said she uses cannabis as a result of a medical condition. “It basically keeps me alive,” she said. She told a candidates forum that medicinal cannabis was unaffordable for many people. “That’s the main reason that I’m here,” she said. “I’d like to see people who are suffering to be able to afford it.”
Quentin Bye
Sustainable Australia Party
The Gold Coast resident of five years is described as a carpenter and builder who now works as a height safety equipment technician. He is campaigning to “put our environment” first by “preserving and enhancing” outdoor spaces, taking “real action” on climate change and supporting better public transport, bicycle networks and pedestrian infrastructure. He is also campaigning for a ban on all property developer donations to political parties, an end to “overdevelopment”, and a “return to the normal level of immigration” to stabilise Australia’s population size.
Kevin Young
Independent
The businessman who founded The Property Club has made a fortune investing in real estate. He said his campaign was based upon delivering lower rents and lower mortgage repayments to voters. “We now have a massive cost of living housing crisis because property owners and renters have been treated like second-class citizens,” he says. “In the current political system both property owners and renters have virtually no say and are treated with contempt.” Mr Young says if elected he will bring a “four-point plan” to federal parliament to help solve the housing crisis.
Belinda Jones
Independent
A mother and grandmother who has lived on the Gold Coast for 30-plus years. Her policies include the introduction of a Universal Basic Income, the removal of negative gearing for short-stay accommodation, and exploring options like a double-decker M1 to ease congestion. A retail worker and investigative journalist, she has had an “absolute gutful” of scandals such as Robodebt and “pork barrelling” by politicians. “I decided I had to stand up and throw my hat into the ring and say ‘no more’,” she said. “We deserve better representation.”
Stewart Brooker
Independent
A stay-at-home dad who has previously worked for major corporations. He says he is running because people feel their votes “don’t count” due to council, state and federal passing the buck between each other. “That’s BS,” he says. “As a representative it should be you who takes the resident’s issue and you who works out how to solve it. We should be working on the issues together.” Mr Brooker is campaigning for better funding for Fadden so it “catches up” in terms of health, police and transport infrastructure. Among his priorities is the building of a PCYC at Pimpama.
Jan Pukallus
Australian Citizens Party
Ms Pukallus is a mother and grandmother who has been the Queensland State Secretary of the Australian Citizens Party for 21 years. She is campaigning for a “people’s bank” and against the AUKUS alliance, saying it increases the risk of war with China. “We’ve got to fund nation-building infrastructure with a public bank like the Commonwealth Bank that we had for 84 years that built the nation,” Ms Pukallus told a candidates’ forum. In regards to AUKUS, she said Australia should “pursue diplomacy” and “promote peace through economic development and trade” rather than spend $368 billion on nuclear submarines.
Cameron Caldwell
LNP
The Division Four city councillor since 2012 has served as chair of council’s planning committee. A resident of Hollywell, he is a father to two daughters, with a third child on the way. Mr Caldwell said three things had “jumped out” during conversations with residents: cost of living, crime and the delivery of infrastructure. “We need to take the opportunity in this by-election to send the Federal Labor government a message they need to do better on these things,” he said. Mr Caldwell has promised to establish a Fadden Youth Crime Taskforce if elected. He won a bruising party preselection in May to put himself in the box seat to win the traditionally safe conservative seat. He was selected as the LNP candidate for the state seat of Broadwater but was disendorsed and replaced before the 2012 election. Just weeks later he successfully won Division Three at that year’s council election.
James Tayler
Australian Federation Party
The engineer said there was an urgent need for “truth” in politics, and the Fadden by-election “is where we must begin”. “Voting one Tayler makes a statement for truth in Government which means a future of peace, prosperity, harmony and progress,” he told a candidates’ forum. “... truth is not on the side of three major political parties who vote themselves a gigantic rip-off in public funding. I call on the LNP candidate to undertake to refund to taxpayers the $150,000 which his party expects to receive in electoral funding from this by-election, which the LNP has caused.”
More Coverage
What are the conditions? How do they work? Your BPIC questions answered
What is the Best Practice Industry Conditions policy and how does it work? YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
‘Tiny killers’: Alarm bells as fire ants found in northern NSW again
Fire ants dubbed “tiny killers” have been detected in northern NSW after hitching a ride from Queensland, prompting fears that state’s issue with the pests could cause a “national disaster”.