Thursday, 11 April 2019
Australian Greens Senator for Western Australia Jordon Steele-John has welcomed the official start of the election campaign, declaring the Greens (WA) have never been more prepared to deliver a genuine, progressive alternative to the major parties.
Senator Steele-John is up for re-election at the 2019 Federal election and he is The Greens (WA) lead Senate Candidate, and lead Spokesperson throughout the election campaign.
“We’ve never been more ready. We have a positive plan for Western Australia that will create a better future for all of us and we’ve been out in the community talking to voters about it since day one!,” Steele-John said.
“This election is being decided on climate change. Only the Greens have a plan that is based on science, not politics; a real plan to tackle dangerous climate change and transition away from coal to a jobs-rich, 100 per cent renewable economy by 2030.
“The Liberal and Labor parties won’t take the action we need on the climate because they are too compromised by the millions of dollars they take from their big donors in the coal, oil and gas lobby. The Greens don’t take big corporate donations, our campaigns and therefore our policies that we take to Parliament, are entirely people-powered and focused.
“Over the next 37 days, we’ll be outlining our comprehensive plan to turn Western Australia into a renewable energy superpower. Northern parts of our state have some of the world’s best solar and wind energy resources that are also co-located closely with growing economies in our Asian region neighbours. This transition phase would create tens of thousands of jobs across the economy in the process.
“Neither major party has a plan to end the digging up, burning and exporting of coal, which is the biggest single contributor to climate change worldwide. If you don’t have a plan to transition out of coal you don’t have a plan to tackle climate change, it’s as simple as that.
“I’ve been out talking to voters across WA from Busselton to Broome, Albany to Kalgoorlie, from Rockingham in the South to Joondalup in the North, and the message is crystal clear; people want to send to the major parties a message that we need stronger action on climate change!
“We also have a bold social plan to make tertiary education free, build a home for all, raise the rate of newstart and the minimum wage to help people out of poverty, and ensure justice for disabled people by ensuring the Royal Commission is what disabled people need, not what the bureaucrats want it to be. Without Greens in our Parliament there’s no progressive voice to hold a Shorten Labor government to account.
“Here in Western Australia we are fighting to hold off our Senate seat from One Nation – that is the scary truth – and to see positive swings towards the Greens across Perth, Swan and Fremantle because we know these electorates care about issues like climate change.
“Across the country, it’s clear that people want a plan to prevent the breakdown of our climate. Only the Greens have a plan to transition out of coal and into renewables, and at this election you help make that change a reality.”
