Courage to do what is right!

Government is for the benefit of the people (the people are not for the benefit of the government.) There is no excuse for a Government that uses heavy handed bully tactics. "Easier to enforce" is a corrupt reason to amend legislation. The Government and its agencies need to be accountable for their actions. For example, if you are given a infringement for speeding and you don't believe you were speeding, then the equipment used by the police to measure your speed must be subject to the scrutiny of a court. At the moment the legislation prohibits scrutiny on the basis of it is "easier to enforce." All allegations by government agencies need to be open to scruntity. They don't always get it right.

Government must be just. Government needs to treat everyone equally without favour.
We need a Justice System, not just a Legal System. The Justice System should enable guilty people to be appropriately punished and innocent people to be acquitted and in some cases compensated. Since the Government makes the laws, the fairest approach is that the Government should be financially responsible for administering the law. There should be no court fees etc. We have a situation at the moment where if you have sufficient money and you are innocent you can plead innocent and have a hearing. If you are innocent but don’t have money and are relying on Legal Aid or Aboriginal Legal Aid, then you will be advised to plead guilty then accept a plea bargain of sorts. This means that innocent people are being convicted as guilty on the basis of a guilty plea which is actually a form of perjury in that it is an untrue statement to a court! The statistics show that indigenous people are more likely to be convicted as a criminal but how much of this is caused by Aboriginal Legal Aid advising people to plead guilty when they are not guilty? The end result of this system is lack of public confidence in the legal system which leads to more crime.

I agree that we need the “Wisdom of Solomon” to provide true justice some times but we can still take moves to improve the situation. Since the Government is paying for Legal Aid anyway, it would be better if the normal court procedure was to award costs against the government unless it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that a party presents an blatantly untrue and frivolous case. If this ruling is made then the solicitors who presented it can receive no fees. This would mean that solicitors would normally be happy to represent innocent people but would be reticent to have a guilty client plead innocent - it would be the solicitors money at stake. This approach would result in effectively free representation for all with a very strong incentive for solicitors to represent innocent people as innocent, guilty people as guilty. This would substantially improve the level of justice in the legal system, people would have much more confidence that the system would deliver the truth and so there would be less crime.

Government spending should reflect where the tax is paid! More than 60% of Queensland’s income is from regional Queensland so about 60% of tax is paid in regional Queensland. Only 20% of Government expenditure is in Regional Queensland - this is not fair or right! Put simply, about one third of the money you pay in tax to the Queensland Government is spent in Gladstone. Whereas People in Brisbane get about 2 dollars of government spending for every dollar of tax they pay. Check it out - look at where the election material from various parties is Authorised. For most of the parties, the material is authorised in Brisbane. With a head office in Brisbane, what is the likelihood of that party correcting the inequity between Brisbane and Gladstone? As and independent, I can represent the people of Gladstone.

Industral relations needs to be a considerate cooperative teamwork approach between Employers & Employees with both working for common goals and benefits. (Confrontations US vs THEM - are not the way to go.)

Convert existing coal fired power stations to geothermal power to eliminate fuel cost and emissions.

Control of disease spread is important but should not be administered in a harsh, heavy-handed way. Genuine biosecurity risk should be the basis of decisions, not the insensitive "treat everyone as dishonest approach."(The vast majority of Queenslanders are much more honest than the Queensland Government!) The nasty "quarantine in a hotel at your own expense" approach is probably completely unnecessary in more than 95% of cases. People in remote locations including fishing offshore for 14 days is adequate quarantine. Genuine medical cases with no risk need to be exempted from the "Hotel quarantine requirement."

Protect freedom of speech - Political correctness is another term for incorrectness

People need the right to express their opinions and beliefs without fear.

The member of the Legislative Assembly who represents Gladstone needs to listen to the concerns of everyone. Liz Cunningham (Independent) represented the people of Gladstone from 1995 to 2015 and she would talk to everyone. Mr Butcher (Australian Labor Party), the current member for Gladstone will only make apointments to talk with people his party agrees with. This is not right! I should know because I am one of the people Mr Butcher will not listen to.

I am not chained to a political party so I am free to represent the best interests of the people of Gladstone and I have the technical knowledge to make informed decisions. I am prepared to listen to everyone!