Hi, I'm Paul and I'm your Greens candidate for Flynn in the upcoming Federal election.
I'm an Architectural Technician, musician and native vegetation manager. I was born in Rockhampton and educated in Brisbane. I've worked across Australia and overseas, including as a tour guide and fishing instructor, on the Great Barrier Reef and K’gari, and travelled extensively across Europe and Asia.
Edwina, my partner of 35 years, and I are parents to Clancy and Nooroobunda and grandparents to Azariah. We have a dog named Tili. We try to live our lives simply, to leave a smaller footprint on the planet.
As coordinator of successive Green Army teams, I have introduced many at-risk youths to the Australian bush. I'm passionate about inclusive community, volunteering for many years with Landcare, Clean Up Australia, local school parents and citizens associations, the permaculture movement, Coowonga Folk Music Club and Capricorn Conservation Council.
I was green before I was a Green. A humble tree planter and re-cycling geek, I came to realise that environmental solutions were community and human solutions: a functioning democracy does not destroy its ecosystem.
Politicians have given politics a bad name because they increasingly represent their billionaire donors, not the ordinary people who elected them.
Right now, 1 in 3 big corporations pays no tax in Australia. Chances are, you paid more tax than them over the last year, so it's no wonder people are feeling neglected. It's harder and harder to afford a home to live in, get the bills paid, fill the pantry or the petrol tank each week.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
The Greens will reduce cost of living expenses by putting dental and mental health into Medicare, make trips to the GP free again, and freezing and capping rent increases. We’ll regulate the banks to make mortgage payments cheaper.
By making it illegal for supermarkets to price gouge, we’ll bring down the cost of your weekly grocery shop. We can lift all income support payments above the poverty line, make all education free from childcare to university and TAFE, and scrap student debt.
We'll pay for this by making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share in tax.
The Greens are the only party with a serious plan to make the changes we need to sustainably transition our energy sector away from fossil fuels and support all workers as they transition to a different part of the mining industry.
I see "politics" in all human interactions. For me, the Greens are a beacon of hope for a saner, fairer, peaceful and greener world.
Together, we are powerful.
