Policies that should be put to you at the Australian Federal elections of 2 July

An updated version of this article has been published here on 5 June 2016.

Policies that should be put to you at the Australian Federal elections of 2 July

In the Australian Federal elections to be held on 2 July 2015, voters, who support each of the policies listed below, are entitled to know whether each candidate asking for his/her vote will, if elected, support or oppose that policy. We intend to ask each candidate, including the sitting member, his/her intentions should he/she be successful. Each response, or lack of response, will be posted here, to candobetter.net.

More government participation in the economy to create full employment

1. Give every Australian a useful job and a living wage by implementing "Creating effective local labour markets: a new framework for regional employment policy" (2008 - download 3.1 Mb pdf file from the University of Newcastle Center of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE) Publications page);

2. Withdraw Australia from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement;

3. Re-build a large Australian manufacturing sector through (1) government enterprise and (2) tariff walls against countries which have unfair advantages;

4. Encourage the local production and consumption of all food and artifacts;

5. Expand the government housing sector to provide secure, affordable housing to all Australians who need it;

6. Acquire or build suitable premises for use by small businesses, retailers and food producers at affordable rents;

7. Re-establish the Commonwealth Employment Service, which was dismantled by the Howard Government in 1998;

8. Hold a public inquiry into banking, including an investigation of the feasibility of establishing a public bank;

9. Commence proper accounting of budget surpluses and deficits. Recognise the worth of government services which cannot be quantified monetarily. Properly account for all losses caused by budget decisions, for example, enforced idleness by the unemployed, their poverty, and the loss to the community caused by the removal of a service and unutilised skill and experience;

10. Reverse privatisations, corporatisations and deregulation which have been imposed since 1983 as far as is possible. Privatisations include those of Telstra (formerly Telecom), the Commonwealth bank and state banks, public transport, insurance, electricity, water, public land,  … ;

11. Outlaw the sale of Australian land to non-citizens;

12. Public liability insurance to be established - no-one who has organised a public event and has taken all reasonable precautions, should fear financial ruin as a result of any mishap;

13. Establish a free social network on the Internet as an alternative to Facebook, Google and Twitter. That social network is to respect the privacy of its users and be free, transparently run and without commercial advertising;

14. Require that all government and statutory authorities, wherever feasible, use free open-source software, such as the Linux operating system and the Libre Office word processor in preference to expensive proprietary software. School children and university students should be taught to use this open-source software;

15. Establish a public fund to transparently remunerate producers of open-source intellectual property, including software, literature and music; Producers to be paid according to a formula based on how much their products are used, instead of having to seek remuneration from advertising or subscriptions;

Full employment in secure and fulfilling occupations

16. Reduction of working week to 35 hours as a start; outlaw compulsory overtime; require employers to offer workers, who don't need a full wage, to work reduced and flexible hours;

17. Re-establish on-the-job training and career progression in all government departments and statutory authorities as an alternative to training at TAFE colleges and tertiary institutions; Encourage private enterprises to do the same;

18. Abolish sweat-shops. Governments must proactively act to close down factories, which use low-paid workers working for long hours; re-introduce the state award system;

Democracy

19. Open government, except where national security may be compromised; No 'commercial in-confidence' contracts to be signed with members of the private sector at the initiative of the government. Discriminate in favour of contractors who do not require 'commercial in-confidence' contracts;

20. Public newsmedia including the ABC and SBS be required to give all sides of any story where the facts are disputed. All parties to such disputes, whether domestic or foreign, must be given the opprtunity to put their case to the viewing public;

21. Each parliamentarian be require to attend meetings of his/her constituents during election campaigns, including this election and at regular specified intervals;

22. In the next term of parliament, put to voters a referendum to adopt Direct Democracy as practised in Switzerland;

Education

23. Reverse the funding cuts to tertiary institutions and TAFE colleges;

24. More funding for university arts faculties;

25. Abolish university fees;

26. Re-establish the Whitlam Government's Tertiary Education Assistance Scheme (TEAS) so that University students don't have to work part-time to support themselves;

Foreign policy

27. Act to have the full facts of the destruction of flight MH17, in which 28 Australians died, on 17 July 2014 revealed. Demand the Dutch government make the MH17 black box available to investigators. Demand that the United States' government release its satellite surveillance recordings of the flight of MH17 as the Russian government has done;

28. Recognise the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which enjoys far more popular support than any of the Western governments opposed to it, as verified in the June 1914 Presidential election and the recently concluded Parliamentary elections, as the legitimate government of Syria;

29. End the sanctions imposed against Syria on the fabricated pretext that the Syrian government had massacred its own citizens at Houla in 2013;

30. Oppose the illegal proxy terrorist war against the people of Syria which began in March 2011 that war has so far cost the lives of 250,000 Syrians, including 80,000 members of the Syrian Armed forces;

31. Prosecute any Australian citizen known to have participated in that illegal war. Seek collaboration from the Syrian authorities in bringing those people to justice;

32. Remunerate the Syrian government for the trouble and expense it was put to for having to care for 1,300,000 refugees who fled to Syria as a result of the illegal wars of 1991 and 2003 and sanctions against Iraq in which Australia participated;

33. Oppose Israel's illegal seizure of land in the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights;

34. Demand that Israel free former Australian resident Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed to the world Israel's illegal possession of nuclear weapons. Demand that the United Nations act to remove the threat to other countries in that region from those nuclear weapons ;

35. Repudiate the revision of history by which the Ukrainian government installed in the CIA-orchestrated coup of January 2014, justifies collaboration with the Nazi invaders by some Ukrainians;

36. Recognise the secession of Crimea to Russia from Ukraine in February 2014, after that coup, as a legitimate act of self-determination and self-defence, overwhelmingly supported by the inhabitants of Crimea in a referendum;

37. Oppose the war by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against Yemen. Ask that the United Nations take action by against Saudi Arabia to end the war;

38. Expel the Turkish ambassador until such time as the Turkish government restores free speech and democratic rights to all of its citizens, ceases its war against the Kurds, and ceases its purchase of stolen Syrian petroleum from ISIS;

Protection of civil liberties, freedom of speech

39. Offer political asylum to Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and other whistleblowers;

40. Act to force the UK government to end the arbitrary detention of Australian citizen Julian Assange and allow him to return to Australia;

41. Act to prevent intelligence agencies, including the United States' CIA and NSA, Britain's GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 and Australia's ASIO and ASIS from dragnet surveillance of Australian citizens. Only allow surveillance where there is reason to fear terrorism or other illegal acts;

42. As required by law, conduct a coronial inquest into the murder of 35 Australians at Port Arthur in Tasmania on 28 April 1996 - the largest mass murder in Australia's history. The only evidence of the guilt of Martin Bryant for the murders, for which he has never been tried, consists of a supposed confession made after he had been interrogated in solitary confinement for 5 months. This 'confession' is contrary to all other forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony;

Protection of our environment and life support system

43. Reduce Australia's net migration to zero at least until such time as we can know that no other native Australian animal is threatened with extinction because of the loss of its habitat to accommodate newcomers;

44. Outlaw the clearing of native forests. Whether for throw-away paper products or building products, the logging of native forests must end;

45. End the clearing of bushland and agricultral land for housing estates;

46. Outlaw the killing of any native Australian wildlife. Re-build destroyed forests and repopulate them with the native species which previously lived in those regions or else similar species if those species are extinct;

What you can do

If you agree with most, or all, of these policies, please consider standing as a candidate yourself. If you know of any candidates who supports the policies listed above, please let us know so that we can promote him/her and lift his/her profile.

Please feel encouraged to also promote these policies and candidates who support these policies on Twitter, FaceBook, other discussion forums or your own web-site. If you can think of any other policies we should promote, or even if you oppose or don't altogether agree with some of these policies, please also let us know by posting a comment below.