The Country Courier - 11/02/2022

We have such a large group of Members of Parliament and a large selection of options in recent years about which party we should be voting for in Parliament. These options decide the future of this country and are vital to ensuring that the people of Australia have the support which they need. At the same time, Australia has a massive mining industry which contributes billions of dollars to our exports and employs thousands of Australians. So how come despite the people having more choices than ever for who represents them, why do we not talk about mining communities anymore?

This is shown in the electorate of Robertson which I am running to represent most of all. 16,300 workers in the electorate work in an industry which has faced ridicule and a plethora of poor policies in recent years. We've had Members of Parliament from many different parties from the SDP to the Liberals and none of them have ever done anything substantive for the miners of this country. Now that we have a Commonwealth Party and a Socialist Party candidate, they don't want to talk about miners either. The Socialist Party candidate only talks about their record from years ago while the Commonwealth Party candidate is more interested in what happens in Europe than what happens to workers in Australia.

In terms of talking about the issues of miners the Country Labor Party is the only party which has ever managed to really have a solid conversation about what we can do to protect their work. Other parties have sat contented for the only support for mining workers being a weak scheme which would hypothetically help them "retain or retire" which offers a false choice which usually comes with a salary decrease which sends families from comfortable wages to being on the brink of poverty. The Country Labor Party has recently in the past few months changed this habit however and introduced a new plan to give mining workers 100% of what they used to earn back in subsidies over five years to ensure that families don't lose their livelihoods due to job loss and has opened up new employment chances in mining areas to actually give a high wage option for miners to pursue. In terms of protecting miners on the job, the CLP has protected their industry by fighting for free trade with our neighbours while also working to increase safety at the mines to prevent any disasters.

In Robertson, we have to make a choice. Would we rather support the people and party which talks about the largest employer in our area or would we choose those who don't bring it up whatsoever throughout their campaigns. I am committed to the people of Robertson and to the working class. I believe that we should be talking about miners more in our Parliament and throughout our political system to ensure that there is no working class sector of this countries economy who we are leaving out of the conversation. My challenge is for others to follow suit.

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