Braddon candidate's for the upcoming federal election have fought it out in a debate hosted by The Advocate's Sean Ford. Labor's Anne Urquhart and Liberal's Mal Hingston explain who they are and why you should vote for them.
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00:00Hello, I'm Sean Ford and I'd like to introduce two of the Braddon candidates for the federal election.
00:07We have Anne Urquhart for Labor and Mel Hengston for the Liberals.
00:11And one of them will be the new Braddon MHR after the election with the current incumbent Gavin Pearce deciding not to contest.
00:21So in a sense it's a vacant seat so we'll have a new face whichever one it is.
00:26Now, just briefly, Braddon, for those who aren't sure, takes in the North West and also the West Coast, or most of the North West I should say, some of it's actually in Lyons.
00:37Now, Anne has been a Labor Senator for Tasmania. Mel is a Defence Contractor.
00:44And I'll start off by asking you both the same question and I'll start with you Mel if I could.
00:49Now, that is, if you could please briefly introduce yourself, fill us in on what you think the key issues are in Braddon.
00:59And also, if you could please give people an idea why they should vote for you.
01:03Yeah, happy to. So thanks for the invite and it's good to be here with you, Sean.
01:08So look, born and raised right here in McGrady, born in La Trobe. I still live there today with my partner, Urquhart.
01:13Now, I believe the North West Coast is a great place to live. There's good opportunities here, great lifestyle, opportunities for jobs and to buy a house.
01:21And that's a great place to bring a family up.
01:24And work-wise, I've worked in industry. So I've started off with the trade, in the manufacturing after that.
01:30So the carpet factory at Elfingston, still to hydraulics, a place like that along the coast.
01:34After that, I went off and did an engineering degree, a bachelor's of engineering.
01:38And I spent the last 20 years pretty much flying in and out, building mines around Australia.
01:42And a bit of defence work as well for the last couple of years.
01:45In between there, I spent a year with BridgePro over in La Trobe there.
01:49So given that industry background, I'm passionate about industry.
01:53I'm passionate about the jobs and the benefits that brings to the community.
01:55And I will not sell out those jobs for a green preference in Canberra.
02:01Absolutely will not do it.
02:03And under a coalition government, particularly with me as a representative, we will not shut down salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.
02:10Macquarie Harbour will stay open for business and the salmon industry will prevail.
02:15So I'm passionate about jobs and opportunities.
02:17I want our school leaders to leave school and be able to find an opportunity here and stay in Braddon.
02:24Because we've got to stop losing our youngest and brightest workers to the mainland.
02:28We need to turn that around.
02:30Listening to the people of Braddon, cost of living is the number one issue.
02:35By far.
02:37So we're determined to do something about that.
02:39We're listening.
02:40On day one, we're going to halve the fuel excise.
02:42It's going to save everyone that fills up the car $14.
02:46It's going to help everyone right across the spectrum.
02:48Whether you're looking for a job, whether you've got a job, or whether you're retired and not interested in a job,
02:52it's going to help everyone right across the spectrum.
02:56The other thing is the projects that I've been supporting.
02:59So just about every project that I've announced the coalition government will fund has had a community aspect to it.
03:05So it's been a sporting ground, a bowls club, a playground.
03:10I'm really passionate about getting children outside playing.
03:13Get them away from the couch, away from the iPhones.
03:16Get them outside, get families outside playing.
03:18Healthy, happy kids leads to healthy, happy adults.
03:21That's been my focus on how I've selected the projects.
03:24So with all of that, with my engineering background, project management background,
03:29I'm a common sense kind of guy.
03:31I'd like to be part of a common sense led coalition government in Canberra.
03:36And hopefully I get to be the member to represent Braddon.
03:38Thank you for that.
03:39Mal, Ann, brief introduction please.
03:41Main issue is what people should vote for you.
03:45Okay, so I'm Ann Urquhart, the Labor candidate for Braddon.
03:48I've been in this, well, I grew up in Braddon.
03:52I've lived in Braddon all my life.
03:54And I worked at the Simplot factory in Oldberston when it was Edgel Birdseye.
03:59That was my first real job, I guess, if you like.
04:02And I represented workers there and I got a good base of manufacturing and that's been my entire life.
04:10I support manufacturing jobs.
04:13I support wood manufacturing jobs because they have a flow on right across our community in many different areas.
04:19When you have one manufacturing job, you have a number of other jobs that flow off from that.
04:23And I think that's really important in an area like regional Tasmania and particularly the electorate of Braddon.
04:29I'm really passionate about the industries here and also establishing new industries because we are on the verge of changing, you know, a number of areas where I think we have to look at what sort of new industries can move into the area here and get support and continue to employ young people.
04:51For the past 14 years, as many people will know, I've been a senator in the upper house in the federal parliament.
04:58I've enjoyed every moment of that, but I look forward to the challenge and I'm really excited about standing as the member for Braddon.
05:06I, when I'm talking to people out in the community, the one, there's a couple of key issues that have been raised.
05:14One is significantly health.
05:15And that is across all areas of the community from, you know, where Braddon starts at Sassafras, right down the circular head, across the King Island and of course down the West Coast.
05:25So that has been a key issue and you will have noticed, and I hope a lot of people out there have noticed, that a lot of our funding announcements and priorities have been around building health and building healthcare, but opportunities for people to get access to health at a reduced cost or no cost at all to them through free doctor visits and reduced medicines.
05:46So as I said, I'm really pumped to be here and pumped to be the member for Braddon if I am successful on May the 3rd.
05:54Thank you. Just a quick follow-up question on that.
05:57What can you tell us about the new industries that you're hoping to attract?
06:00So obviously we're focused on renewable industry, you know, a lot of renewable, we are the renewable area of Tasmania, right up here we have wind, we have solar, we have a whole range of new industries, we've got a hydrogen proposal to go further up around Hampshire with HIF.
06:19There's a lot of job opportunities in new industries and new renewable energy and I think that is the way of the future, moving to renewable industries, renewable energy to make sure that we can continue to power industry and the nation through, you know, a less invasive sort of place such as renewable energy.
06:40I think it's really the way to go.
06:41Okay, thank you.
06:43Clarify, the HIF project is about making methanol out of waste timber products, nothing to do with hydrogen.
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