Policies

Big 3

Transport

Australia's cities are facing growing traffic congestion and gridlock both in and out of peak periods. Our growing population means more people commuting, and that means a need for more capacity to carry more people, and more goods those people consume.

Research shows that building more motorways actually makes traffic congestion worse, by encouraging more people to drive. This is a phenomenon called 'induced demand': "Build it and they will come". Let's face it: most of us have driven on new motorways as soon as they're built, convinced they will reduce traffic times. But when everyone does that, the new roadd very quickly becomes gridlocked. Furthermore, cars take up more space per person than any other mode of transport, meaning motorways are lower capacity than other modes of transport, often needing at least 8 lanes to carry 2 train tracks worth of people, meaning more space for cars and less for housing, jobs and farming. Cars also pollute more, and use up more fuel, than any other mode of transport except aircraft. As a result, I will not support the construction of any new motorways, including (but not limited to) the under-construction WestConnex in Sydney and the West Gate Tunnel in Melbourne. Unfortunately, Australia's road lobby is as powerful as the USA's gun lobby. They must be stopped if we are to get the worl-class public transport we need. This includes road-building business Transurban, who profits off Australia's car dependency and uses those profits to increase their power and influence at the expense of common sense.

The end goal is to get people out of their cars as much as possible. All other methods of travel outclass cars for the vast majority of trips, and their investment will reduce car use, and by extension traffic congestion, pollution and fuel consumption, while also creating jobs and saving money for both governments and commuters.

At the local level, I will push for more frequent bus services going to more places, as well as more separated bike lanes that encourage cycling, separate bikes from cars, and hopefully end the war between the two modes. I will also push for discounted fares for travel only within districts. In Melbourne this will mean $1 if you travel no more than 2 hours in a day, and $2 for longer travel, for all commuters. Lastly, I will push for traffic light priority for buses and trams to reduce their travel times (reducing pressure on fleet numbers) and further promote transitioning to sustainable transport. In Melbourne, I will also push for investment in our tram network, extending it to key interchanges and locations, and making 100% DDA-compliant.

For longer trips, I will push for investment in railways. Unlike motorways, railways create permanent jobs in in the form of station staff, conductors, drivers and fleet maintenance crews. They also take thousands of cars off the road (roughly 800 per train depending on its size and class), slashing traffic congestion. This includes high-speed rail between Melbourne and Brisbane, which will take hundreds of flights a day out of the sky, massively reducing pollution and fuel consumption from planes.

And yes, I will build the Simpsons Monorail. It will run initially from Melbourne Airport to Doncaster via Highpoint Shopping Centre and Melbourne Lonsdale Street, and then be extended to Ringwood, Knox, Rowville and Dandenong.

I am a big fan of decentralisation, taking pressure off capital cities by promoting growth in regional, rural and outback Australia, and believe regional rail will help promote such development. As such I will push for regonal rail revivals and construction all over Victoria, creating both a 'city of cities' in Melbourne and a 'state of cities' in Victoria, with railways connecting all regional centres.

I will also push for the upgrading of our rail networks to have more failsafes against faults in both infrastructure and rollingstock, increasing reliability.

In summary, I promise:

Funding of thousands of new buses

Increased bus frequencies

Creation of new bus routes

Expansion and construction of bus depots

Making Melbourne's tram network DDA-compliant

Traffic light priority for buses an trams

Stop the construction of motorways

Stop Transurban

Expansion of Melbourne's tram network by 2040 to:

Chadstone



Doncaster



Knox



Darling



South Morang



Melbourne Airport



Williamstown via Fishermans Bend



Truganina via Fishermand Bend



Williamstown-Sunshine

Expansion of Victoria's passenger train network by 2050 to:

Rosebud (including Baxter/Karingal Hub electrificaton and Stony Point line duplication)



Cross-peninsula (Rosebud-Hastngs via Flinders)



Inverloch



Cowes



Yarram via Leongatha



Lakes Entrance



Maffra



Cross-Gippsland (Inverloch-Morwell via Leongatha)



Rowville



Berwick via Chadstone



Warburton



Healesville



Whittlesea



Yarrawonga



Rutherglen



Cobram



Melbourne Airport (redirecting Seymour and Bendigo trains)



Robinvale



Sea Lake



Mildura



Hopetoun



Yaapeet



Nhill



Portland



Skipton



Port Fairy



Bright



Mansfield



Picola



Knox



Suburban Rail Loop



Geelong-Bendigo



Castlemaine-Ararat



Bendigo-Benalla



Echuca-Shepparton



Metro networks in: LaTrobe City (Moe-Traralgon and Morwell-Churchill) Bendigo (Marong-Kangaroo Flat and Bendigo-Bagshot) Ballarat (Warrenheip-Lucas) Geelong (Avalon Airport-Torquay, Drysdale-Bannockburn and Ocean Grove-Inverleigh) Mildura (Red Cliffs-Merbein)

Increased train frequencies

Boost frequencies of the Overland to 2 trains per day (daily and nightly)

Monorail Airport-Dandenong via Melbourne, Doncaster, Ringwood, Knox and Rowville

High-Speed Rail Melbourne-Brisbane

Safe, separated bike lanes

Boost in reliability of Australia's rail networks

Click here to view my entire vision to grow and evolve Victoria's transport networks by 2050. (WARNING: 56.9MB download)

Environment and Sustainability

Global Warming, also known as Climate Change, is real. And there is a massive number of ways it can be addressed, from transitioning away from oil and coal to renewables, to developing low-emissions low-energy technology, to minimising car use (see Transport above), and even simple measures such as planting trees and even having fewer children and waiting longer to have them.

In Queensland, Adani's Carmichael Coal Mine threatens to destroy Queensland's farmland, water supply and the Great Barrier Reef, and the 70,000+ jobs they create. If the mine is built, those jobs will die, and those families will become what can only be described as 'climate refugees', swamping Sydney and Melbourne looking for work.

There is no such thing as infinity. Earth is round, and does not get bigger every time someone is born. This means we have limited resources, including limited space, that must be used wisely. It also means there are limits to growth -- limits our world has exceeded. I believe that promiting infinite growth is akin to being a flat-earther, and it is an attitude that is destructive on a global level.

I will push for the federal government to respect these limits to growth and use Australia's limited space wisely. It CAN be done without ruining the economy.

In addition, I will push for tree-planting initiatives wherever applicable, the creaton of the Great Forest National Park, and family planning and other initiatives to address overpopulation, the biggest and most impactful environmental and sustainable issue facing our world.

In summary, I promise:

Sustainable transport

Stop Adani

Oppose oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight

Transition away from coal and oil (including cutting any subsidies)

Promote and subsidise renewable energy

Promote energy conservation at all levels, including through an advertising blitz

Address limits to growth and natural resources

Initiatives to address overpopulation, including family planning programs and an advertising blitz

Tree-planting initiatives

Sustanable infrastructure and construction

Autistic acceptance and equality

Over the past few decades, Australia has made leaps and bounds in addressing and promoting equality for LGBTI people, worthy of international praise. However, very little is being done to address similar prejudices against people on the Autism spectrum. Any attempt to address that inequality gets quickly dismissed and swept under the rug.

You may have heard the saying "vaccines cause Autism". Obviously this is wrong, but anti-vaxxers who believe that still continue to preach the lie. But the saying is more than a lie: it's a form of hate speech. Not only is it an attempt to demonise vaccines, but it also demonises people on the Autism Spectrum.

"Autism" is an ambiguous word. The Autism Spectrum is enormous, and ranges from severe variants like my own brother, who is unable to look after himself and can barely speak at age 31, to milder variants like Anne Hegarty (the Governess from Channel 7's The Chase) and comedian Hannah Gadsby, who are so much like you and I that you can't even tell they're Autistic. But anti-vaxxers often falsely claim that everyone on the Autism Spectrum, including the above celebrities, are severely disabled, and promote hate against them accordingly.

Mildly Autistic people are not disabled at all. They simply think differently to the rest of us, but that does not make them disabled, and so they should not be demonised as such. They have a lot they can give that we neurotypical people could never even dream of, so demonising and belittling them holds everyone back.

Autistic people are highly intelligent and creative, have strong attention to detail, are natural at thinking outside the box, and most famously, have an unrivalled passion for a single topic that is so strong that, give support, it can allow them to change the world.

Anti-vaxxers aren't even the only people who discriminate against Autistic people either. Employers also often reject Autistic job-seekers, resulting in a horrible Autistic unemployment rate of a whopping 31.6% as of the 2016 Census! In addition, Autistic people are frequently bullied at schools, even more than nerds and LGBTI children, just for being 'not normal'. While Safe Schools addresses bullying aganst LGBTI people, it does nothing to support Autistic bully victims.

Even if I'm not voted in, I will always speak up for Autistic people and advocate for their equality and respect at every level. I will push for awareness and acceptance programs in schools, do advertizing blitzes to promote Autism among the general public, promote the strengths of Autism to employers with the aim of slashing the Autistic unemployment rate to no more than 10% by 2030, and even start an annual Mardi Gras-like parade in Melbourne themed around Autism.

In summary, I promise:

Autism awareness and acceptance programs in schools

Silence the anti-vaxxers

Pro-Autism advertising blitz

Autism-themed Mardi Gras

Promote equality for Autistic job-seekers

Slash the Autistic unemployment rate from 31.6% to below 10% by 2030

Other policies

These policies will be developed over time as part of my campaign trail.

Policies so far include: