Personal Background

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I was born in Brisbane in the mid-late 1960s.  My parents left the city when I was very young and I grew up in the town of Dalby on the Darling Downs, heading back to Brisbane in the mid '80s to commence university study in Mechanical Engineering.  I am married and have four children.  I have lived in the Pine Rivers region since the mid-2000s - currently living just on the "wrong" side of the Pine Rivers / Kurwongbah boundary line in Lawnton.

 

I worked for Brisbane City Council in the vehicles/mobile plant section for nearly 24 years as an engineer/technical officer, did a Graduate Diploma of Education in 2010, and secured a permanent teaching position in 2014 at a Christian School in Caboolture where I have worked ever since.

 

In terms of community involvement, my main activities have been with evangelical churches near where I have lived, since 1985. I am a Bible-believing Christian though in saying this, I do not in general wish to impose my views on non-believers in a legally binding way.  While I do think that many traditional Christian moral stances are the healthiest for individuals and society in general, I am also a strong believer in religious freedom and that true Christian faith cannot, and should not, be coerced.  On the other hand, I am concerned that in our current political environment, the freedom of Christians and other religious groups to present their understanding of the world in any kind of public way is being seriously eroded and I would like to protect these freedoms.

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General political outlook

 

Apart from the core issue of democracy, where the people truly are in charge of their common affairs, in particular, the laws which govern our communal lives, I tend towards a libertarian view of the role of government.  That is, the main role of government is to protect people’s freedom to live their lives as they see fit and not to make everyone fit into the same mould and be forced into supporting causes with which they do not agree or in which they have little interest.

 

However, this should not be taken to mean a rampant individualism or selfishness as I am highly supportive of people voluntarily joining together to support each other in times of need or in common causes that are beyond the means of any one individual or small group (for example customer owned banks, cooperatives, industrial unions and associations, insurance of various types).  The difference between this view and that of “big government” is not the joining together in common causes, but the voluntary nature of such associations.

 

On the other hand, I also do recognize that rampant selfishness of ruthless individuals can allow societies to reach a point where so many resources are concentrated in the hands of a few that it is necessary to impose limits and implement systems to redress the imbalance. Once those system are in place, I am committed to upholding them and strongly oppose efforts by the powerful parties to “dodge them” by bullying tactics, trickery and deception.

 

Given the above, hopefully the slogan, “FREEDOM WITH FAIRNESS, COMPASSION WITHOUT COERCION, DEMOCRACY

– NOT DICTATORSHIP”, makes perfect sense!