WITH just a few days to go to the 2016 Federal Election, Jimboomba Times asked the Forde candidates what they view as the greatest hindrance to economic growth and job creation in the electorate, and how they plan to address it.
In order of their ballot paper appearance, here are their answers.
David Wilks – Independant
Beenleigh, which sits right in the heart of Forde, could be and should be a vibrant commercial centre.
Rail, the M1 and the Logan Motorway all have exits to Beenleigh and adjoining Yatala is already one of the largest industrial centres in Australia.
Both major parties are promising significant sums to upgrade the M1 and yet there is ample research to show that upgrading roads only encourages greater use, resulting in exactly the same bottlenecks, simply with more vehicles involved.
Bert van Manen – LNP
Too much red tape and high taxes are the greatest hindrance to economic growth and job creation.
Small business is the engine room of our economy, and we’ll be delivering tax relief for these family businesses to boost economic growth and create more jobs by reducing their tax rate to 27.5 per cent from July 1, 2016.
This will deliver a lower tax rate for around 870,000 companies who employ more than 3.4 million people
Des Hardman – Labor
One of the biggest limitations we have at the moment is the ability for workers and families to get in and out of Logan – whether it’s the M1 or the Gateway and Logan Motorway congestion or limited public transport options.
Businesses will grow where customers and workers have ease of access.
By providing an adequate funding model to fix the M1, addressing safety issues along the Mt Lindesay Highway and commencing the Cross River Rail, businesses can be assured that getting their customers, goods and workers to where they are needed is a priority for a Labor government.
Annelise Hellberg – Family First
Response not received in time
Sally Spain – Greens
Forde is ideally placed to transition to a job-rich new economy of high tech manufacturing and clean energy, backed up by a highly skilled workforce.
The hindrance for economic growth in Forde is not having more Australian Green Party representation.
The Greens have fully costed policies to drive the transition to the new economy, including investment in research, innovation, skills, infrastructure and small business. We also have measures to ensure no one gets left behind during the transition to a cleaner 21st century economy.
It was a damaging and ill-advised step, by the federal government, to downgrade the CSIRO, by dismissals of researchers and innovators and we will use our vote to redress this.
Our Senators ensured, by their honest policy initiative and their vote, that politicians' promises and the costs of those promises, can now be checked by an Independent Committee.
Australian Greens have fully costed proposals, and, importantly, we are transparent and accurate in showing how these will be funded.
Shaun Spain – Australian Liberty Alliance
Small businesses are the building blocks of our local economy and employ a significant part of the Australian population.
I had the opportunity to speak to several small business owners and they shared some of their problems – Inability to plan long term because of political/bureaucratic instability, poor infrastructure in Forde in particular slow internet speeds and patchy mobile coverage and high costs, in particular rent and staff.
According to government data the next big growth in economy is expected to be in the area of services. Small businesses are in an excellent position to address these emerging needs due to the higher flexibility and adaptability to changing market needs.
In my opinion we need to support this process by working towards a more honest and transparent political climate, reduce the taxes for new/emerging small businesses, immediately increase the quality and speed of internet infrastructure by using the cutting edge Wi-Fi high speed technologies developed by Telstra and encourage through legislation flexible arrangements such as working from home or remotely.
This may also help reducing the costs associated with rent and staffing.
