Independent Russell Wattie (QLD) – Meet the Candidates at Ipswich

2010-08-18
Media Statement
Meet the Candidates at Ipswich
Yesterday an invite to attend a ‘meet the candidate’ session was extended to me by the Greens candidate Dr Patricia Petersen at the Hotel Metropole 253 Brisbane Street Ipswich. I have decided to accept the invitation, and thank the Greens for the opportunity, as the opportunity to speak to the people of Queensland is limited for an Independent candidate. Although this meeting is going to clash with another major event on the campaign trail, that being the forum with Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott at the Broncos Leagues club, the opportunity to hear the minor players who may just hold the balance of power in the senate is a vital part of the electoral process, and of benefit to the people of Australia.
My journey through Queensland last week from the Gold Coast to Townsville and back through Emerald, gave me a great opportunity to connect with the Queenslanders that have to deal with the poor state of QLD roads on a day to day basis. The interesting thing that I was not expecting was the feedback from the small businessmen and women along the way who like me find the ever increasing burden of government paperwork requirements, to be a growing nail in the coffin of small businesses.
I expect the people of Ipswich will have similar concerns to that of the people of country QLD. We struggle with an increasing government presences in our lives; this does not help the people of QLD but makes the task of negotiating the requirements of government a veritable minefield for the unwary. This is not the way we want to live. We need to make the work of running a small business easier so that the largest combined employer group can continue to be competitive.
We have a revolving door prison system, yet now the federal politicians have now joined the mantra of State pollies at election time, let’s get tough on crime. For 100 + years we have heard this every state election cycle now the federal pollies want to chant the same thing. It is well past time to give up on being ‘tough on crime’ and start being “Smart on Crime”.
The people of Ipswich as all of Queenslanders will be long over the continual upward drift in Prisoner reoffending rates, so long as we continue to maintain the current system of dealing with offenders we will have nothing but more of the same, ever increasing reoffending rates. This is a clear indication that the current system fails; families of victims, families of offenders, all victims and offenders are being failed by the system daily. Time to “Get Smart on Crime”
All are invited to attend this community forum tonight Wednesday 18th August at the Hotel Metropole in Ipswich at 7 PM
Russell Wattie
camelumcqld@gmail.com
0418573006