The responses were varied, both in quality and quantity, when the Armidale chapter of GetUp! recently contacted the local election candidates on several key issues, in particular climate change. Four of the six candidates were contacted; Greg Smith, Tim Coates, Pat Schultz and Tony Windsor. Of these, only Tim Coates failed to respond.
Curious were the comments of Greg Smith, Country Labor candidate, as they served to communicate nothing and completely failed to answer the questions GetUp! had asked. In response to the priorities that need to be attributed to climate change, and on the support of a price on carbon pollution, GetUp! were merely advised of a “robust position…certainly entailing a carbon price” This was all the Labor candidate was willing to say on these seminal issues.
In stark contrast, Greens representative, Pat Schultz, opened her response by apologising for the scant nature of her replies. She needn’t have worried though as, compared to others, her responses were satisfyingly comprehensive. From the first she did not miss the opportunity to point out the negligence of the 2 major parties on the issue of climate change, a recurring sticking point for the Greens. According to Schultz, there are several ways forward on this issue from a regional perspective and these include improved public transport infrastructure and an extension of the rail network to enable a heavier reliance on freighting by this method. Unsurprisingly, the Greens had a similarly strong stance on charging for carbon pollution categorically stating that “[T]his tax must be real and equitable, not allowing the big polluters to continue unabated” and that funds generated should go back into “development of alternative energy”.
Fortunately our third respondent answered with the same care and detail as Ms Schultz. New England’s current incumbent, and Independent candidate, Tony Windsor provided a thorough response to each issue raised. Taking the traditional, non-committal stance of not admitting whether or not climate change is actually happening, Mr Windsor nonetheless acknowledged that “[R]esponsible action needs to be taken as soon as possible” and, whilst his reply did not contain any of the practical suggestions of his Greens counterpart, he did state that “For the sake of our future generations, this is an urgent issue.” Less definitive was Windsor’s reply to the issue of a carbon tax, “Only with appropriate conditions”, but he did express a need for an increase to the 5% carbon pollution reduction target in the currently proposed government scheme.
GetUp! thanks these candidates for taking the time to respond on the issues of climate change and carbon pollution, one now seeks to hope that words will transform into vitally required positive and decisive action in the near future.
