Machine shop Manager

Lives in Exeter

I come from hardworking Christian household where I was taught that honesty and integrity are the most important personality traits. I always try to live up to those ideals. I’ve been knocked down in my life more than once, but my saving grace has been my little family, who have always given me a reason to try and be better tomorrow than I was today.

When I arrived in Australia with my then fiancée, I only had enough money to support us for a couple of months and the Air Force and labouring were all I had on my resume. Since then, I have put myself through university and completed my apprenticeship in fitting and turning.

Bass is an amazing place to live. We have beautiful beaches, gorges, waterfalls, farmland, forests, waterfalls and mountains. We have people from all walks of life and a rich heritage with businesses that have been around for 130 plus years and families that can be traced back to the start of this great state.

But it’s also a challenging time to live here. With interest rates going up, house prices skyrocketing and the cost of everyday goods steadily rising, it’s getting harder for people to make ends meet. We should be doing more to support people who are only just holding on.

Why I’m running

Support small business and manufacturing

In the last 15 years, I have seen small business being suffocated by big corporations. We’ve sunk millions of taxpayer dollars into propping up big companies, without doing anything meaningful to support our small businesses. I’ve seen so many proud Tassie manufacturing businesses fold. Letting our manufacturing industry slowly die makes us less resilient in hard times like during COVID and it makes everything more expensive when the global economy is struggling.

Transparency and Accountability

For a little while it looked like we might get some transparency in our political donation system in Tasmania. Both major parties were talking about real time disclosure of political donations during elections and reducing the amount someone can donate before their donation has to be disclosed to the public. Lo and behold they’ve both walked away from those reforms. We have to force them back to the table.

Invest in healthcare

Sadly, our health system is in trouble. I know people who work in Launceston General Hospital who say that it’s a struggle every day at work because of resourcing challenges. These people are our heroes, the ones we rely on when we’re sick or injured. We have to support them better, or we’ll burn through our already too small healthcare workforce.

No Tasmanian should be homeless

The state government has fumbled the ball terribly with our homelessness crisis. Jacqui struck a deal, which wiped out our $200 million state public housing debt. That effectively doubled the amount of money available for affordable housing developments. Where are those homes? There are many people struggling in Bass whose lives would be changed by getting access to affordable housing. I want to get in and get those projects moving.