Australia is on track to see the first generation in our history go backwards in wealth. Our kids cannot afford homes in the communities they grew up in. It is a national disgrace. In Shortland, the official median house price might hover around $700,000, but the reality is far worse. Families are being quoted $850,000 or more just for a basic home. Wages have not kept pace, and the dream of home ownership is slipping away.
The major parties want you to believe this is only a supply issue. It is not. The biggest driver of unaffordable housing is tax policy — policies they refuse to touch because they benefit from them.

As an Independent, I will fight for real reform, including:

• Winding back the capital gains tax discounts that fuel property speculation and drive up prices.
• Reforming negative gearing so the system supports home ownership, not just investor profits.
• Cracking down on foreign investment that locks Australians out of the market.
• Working with states to expand infrastructure, public transport, and services to better connect outer suburbs and new developments.
• Investing in the renewal and maintenance of existing public housing to lift living standards and provide real housing security.

Independents have the power to raise the issues the major parties will not. We are not funded by property developers or beholden to big donors. We stand with families, workers, and young Australians who deserve a future of their own.

Housing should be for living in, not just for investing.

Australia’s healthcare system is at a crossroads. While Medicare was established to provide universal health coverage, we’ve seen a gradual shift towards a two-tiered system that favors those who can afford private insurance. This shift has been facilitated by substantial government subsidies to private health insurers, amounting to approximately $7.6 billion annually. These funds could be more effectively utilized to strengthen Medicare, ensuring timely and equitable access to healthcare for all Australians.​

Similarly, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), though transformative in intent, has encountered significant challenges in execution. Reports indicate that over $1 billion annually is spent on plan managers and support coordinators, with concerns about the value and oversight of these expenditures. Additionally, instances of funds being allocated to non-essential services highlight the need for more stringent governance and accountability within the NDIS. The Australian+1The Australian+1

As an Independent, I will advocate for:

• Reassessing Private Health Insurance Subsidies: Evaluating the efficacy of current subsidies and considering the reallocation of funds to bolster Medicare services.​
• Enhancing NDIS Oversight: Implementing stricter controls to ensure that NDIS funds are directed towards essential services and supports, minimizing administrative overheads and preventing misuse.​
• Investing in Public Healthcare Infrastructure: Allocating resources to expand and modernize public healthcare facilities, reducing wait times and improving service delivery.​
• Strengthening Workforce Development: Providing incentives and support for training and retaining healthcare professionals, ensuring a robust and responsive healthcare workforce.​

By addressing these areas, we can redirect funds to where they’re most needed, ensuring that Australia’s healthcare system remains equitable, efficient, and sustainable for future generations.

I have run a small business for more than a decade. I have seen firsthand how broken the system is. Small businesses create around 60% of Australia’s jobs and contribute about a third of our GDP. Yet we are treated like cash cows — paying higher effective taxes, drowning in red tape, and carrying risks that big corporations are allowed to sidestep. The GST system punishes growth too early. Workers’ compensation premiums act like a hidden tax on employing people. Access to fair finance is a battle. Meanwhile, multinationals find ways around tax laws while local businesses are left carrying the load. Right now, the taxman has made more off my business than I have — and that is not how a fair economy should work.

As an Independent, I will fight for a better deal for small businesses, including:

• Pushing for a lower, flat small business tax rate that rewards risk-taking and job creation.
• Raising the GST threshold significantly, so small businesses can grow before being dragged into heavy compliance.
• Making the full cost of compliance tools, like accounting and reporting software, fully tax-deductible.
• Expanding fair access to finance through better, low-risk small business loan guarantees – based on business performance, not family homes.
• Delivering transparent and fair workers’ compensation fees, ending the wage-based hidden taxes that crush small employers.
• Cracking down on multinational tax loopholes, so big corporations finally pay their fair share.
• Opening up real access to government contracts, so small businesses are no longer locked out of opportunities by red tape and corporate gatekeeping.

Small business does not want handouts. We want fairness, transparency, and the freedom to build. If given a fair go, small businesses will rebuild Australia’s future stronger than ever.

I support clean energy when it is smart, when it works, and when it benefits Australians first. For too long, we have built billion-dollar industries in this country only to see the profits shipped offshore. We mine the raw materials, but we pay premium prices for our own energy. It is madness. Green energy is a vital goal for the future, but it cannot just be about ideology or photo opportunities. It must be tied to real national ownership, real manufacturing, and real energy security that stays in Australian hands.

As an Independent, I will fight for:

• Building clean energy industries that Australians own, not foreign multinationals.
• Investing in Australian manufacturing of solar, wind, battery, and hydrogen technologies — not just exporting raw materials.
• Keeping critical energy infrastructure grids, pipelines, storage in Australian public or Australian-controlled hands.
• Using smart, region-specific solutions like pumped hydro, hydrogen, solar, wind, and emerging nuclear technology depending on what works best, not political fashion.
• Protecting Australians from price gouging by ensuring our clean energy transition lowers costs for families and businesses, not raises them.

Energy security is national security. A strong, smart, independent energy future is not a luxury it is the foundation of Australia’s economic strength for generations to come.

We should be building a world where one parent can stay home if they choose. That used to be normal. Now, it feels almost impossible. In Shortland, the practical cost of owning a home is pushing $850,000 or more. Mortgage stress, rising living costs, stagnant wages, and broken tax settings are stretching families thinner than ever before. The family unit is the foundation of strong communities and a strong nation yet policy after policy treats families as an afterthought.

As an Independent, I will fight for:

• Raising wages over time, so families are not trapped in survival mode.
• Cooling the housing market through serious tax reforms — including winding back negative gearing and capital gains concessions that distort prices.
• Prioritising first home ownership over mass property speculation.
• Lifting the GST registration threshold, to help small businesses grow without crushing family-run enterprises in red tape.
• Reforming tax policies to better support single-income families and stay-at-home parents who make an economic and social contribution that is too often ignored.
• Making the family unit central to housing, tax, education, healthcare, and employment policies — not just an afterthought.

Strong families build strong communities. Strong communities build a strong nation. It’s time we put families back at the centre of Australia’s future.

Australians deserve a government that works for them not one that protects itself. The NACC was a start, but right now it is a toothless tiger.
It can only hold public hearings in “exceptional circumstances.” It has been slow to act on major scandals like Robodebt. And even its leadership has faced serious questions about impartiality. If everyday Australians have to pay their own legal bills when facing prosecution, why don’t politicians and senior bureaucrats? If watchdogs like ASIC and the ATO are supposed to police misconduct, why are they kept underfunded and politically muzzled?

As an Independent, I will fight for real accountability, including:

• Strengthening the NACC’s powers to allow more public hearings and ensure serious cases are pursued transparently.
• Forcing politicians and senior public servants found guilty of misconduct to personally cover their legal costs not the taxpayer.
• Boosting ASIC and ATO funding and independence, with clear mandates to investigate corporate fraud, tax evasion, and misconduct without fear or favour.
• Ending political interference in corruption investigations by requiring mandatory public reporting of all dropped cases and reasons why.
• Closing multinational tax loopholes that rob Australians of billions every year and making sure the big end of town plays by the same rules as the rest of us.

Australians are sick of secret deals, political favours, and excuses. We need a system that holds the powerful accountable not one that protects them. Real accountability. Real consequences. Because no one should be above the law especially those who write it.