Carole Stanford: Green Party candidate takes on Katter in Kennedy electorate

There is about as much chance of the Green Party winning Kennedy in the Federal Election as there is of spotting incumbent MP Bob Katter in an inner-city gay bar.

Greens candidate for Kennedy Carole Stanford says she is running to stop supermarket price gouging, cap rents and deliver cheaper mortgages for those in housing stress, and to “make big corporations pay their fair share in tax so we can fund free GP visits and dental and mental health into Medicare”. Picture: Supplied

There is about as much chance of the Green Party taking the expansive Outback seat of Kennedy in the upcoming Federal Election as there is of spotting incumbent MP Bob Katter in an inner-city gay bar.

That isn’t stopping Carole Stanford, who is campaigning on tackling the cost-of-living and climate-change crises, boosting Medicare to include dental and mental health, and taxing corporations more effectively to pay for it all.

“It’s not a question of saying, ‘oh well, it just has to stay like this forever’, people need an alternative,” she said in an accent that belied her background as a science educator at high school and university.

“I am one who feels it is very important to be looking at a different future for people across Queensland, across regional Queensland and for our youth, and if we vote for the same parties all the time … we can’t expect anything different.”

Kennedy MP Bob Katter last week welcoming additional Federal funding for disaster-recovery programs on a Hinchinbrook cane farm the wake of the North Queensland flood disaster. Mr Katter has spent half a century representing rural North Queensland in both the state and federal parliaments, including as the member for Kennedy since 1993. Picture: Cameron Bates

The chemistry and computer teacher said there was a pressing need to upskill the Australian workforce, which included making the public education system completely free.

“That means no charges for uniforms, excursions, the materials that are required, and we need to look at what is happening in our universities … over the decades we’ve seen more and more charges on our university students … we are churning out graduates who have to pay a hell of a lot of money back.”

She said the Greens were advocating to wipe at least 20 per cent off existing student loans.

Ms Stanford, from the Tablelands, said there was a housing crisis that had had a particularly severe impact on the young and the elderly that needed addressing.

“We are talking about a cap on rent, for example, on people who are renting, and there are a lot of people renting, at least 50 per cent in some of our communities up here,” she said.

“It’s appalling that we have women and children, but not just women and children, sleeping in cars and then trying to go to work, how are they going to be ‘productive’? It’s nonsensical.”

Senator Larissa Waters, who is running for re-election, praised Greens candidate for Kennedy Carole Stanford as a “hardworking community and environment advocate. Picture: Martin Ollman

Ms Stanford rejected the common misperception that the Greens were anti-mining, saying they stood against the expansion of the fossil-fuel industry that was the main driver of global climate change.

She said mining in her electorate needed to be encouraged, including investing in railway networks.

“A number of those (critical) minerals are what we need for future renewable energy projects, storage projects … and they are important to us.”

Carole Stanford, the Greens candidate for Kennedy in North and North-West Queensland. The Greens claimed just 6.4 per cent of the vote in Kennedy in the expansive Outback electorate in 2022. Picture: Supplied

Ms Stanford took issue with the vast profits natural resource companies funnelled offshore.

Ms Stanford said the wealth disparity between the haves and have-nots was stark, with the average Australian billionaire currently making $67,000 per hour.

“It would be rather nice to be making that every year for quite a few of us ... that disparity … is growing bigger, that worries me, I just think that is totally unjust.”

The political newcomer said she was a reluctant politician.

“Sometimes we have to stand up and say we think things are wrong as they are and we have to try to do something about them.”

Mr Katter has spent half a century representing rural North Queensland in both the state and federal parliaments, including as the member for Kennedy since 1993.

The deeply conservative politician and his trademark Akubra cowboy hat pranced home with 42 per cent of the vote in 2022, horse lengths ahead of the LNP on 28 per cent, Labor with 16 per cent and the Greens with just 6.4 per cent.

Greens Senator Larissa Waters said Ms Stanford was committed to the interests of the community rather than the “interests of big corporations and billionaires”.

“With a likely minority government, the Greens will deliver dental and mental health into Medicare and take strong action to combat our housing and climate crisis,” she said.

“More Greens in Parliament will keep Dutton out and get Labor to act.”

Originally published as Carole Stanford: Green Party candidate takes on Katter in Kennedy electorate