27 August 2013

Damien Maher, Bullet Train for the House of Reps Canberra, Candidate Questionnaire, Election ’13

| Barcham
Join the conversation
18
Andrew

Bullet Train for Australia’s Damien Maher has gotten his answers in, check them out below.

Candidates, the readers of RiotACT are your voters and they have questions for you! If you’d like to answer those questions and prove you care what your voters think then email us at contact@the-riotact.com.

You can find the questions here.


1. What are your views on euthanasia?

The Bullet Train for Australia Party has no official position on any other policy areas apart from High-Speed-Rail (HSR), Bullet Trains, Very Fast Trains, Fast-rail and related topics.


2. Do you support a High Speed Rail Link between Sydney/Canberra/Melbourne?

Yes


3. Are you comfortable with the distribution of wealth in modern day Australia?

The Bullet Train for Australia Party has no official position on any other policy areas apart from High-Speed-Rail (HSR), Bullet Trains, Very Fast Trains, Fast-rail and related topics.


4. Recent polling (Auspoll) shows housing affordability to be a critical issue for a majority of Australians, with 84% of respondents saying it was important to them or their families, putting housing affordability ahead of issues such as education, border security, the NBN and NDIS.

The same poll also revealed that 84% of respondents also believe that Australia is not performing well on housing affordability.

Australian Governments are failing badly on this issue of critical importance to Australians.
What would you do to improve housing affordability?

Good question – This only makes me think about having a way to connect regional Australia where housing is affordable to the job plentiful cities. High speed rail would do this. re-vitalizing and connecting towns to the major cities.


5. To me the NBN seems like a great idea, can you tell me why you think it’s ace/a dumb idea.

The Bullet Train for Australia Party has no official position on any other policy areas apart from High-Speed-Rail (HSR), Bullet Trains, Very Fast Trains, Fast-rail and related topics.


6. Do you think cyclists should be registered?!

The Bullet Train for Australia Party has no official position on any other policy areas apart from High-Speed-Rail (HSR), Bullet Trains, Very Fast Trains, Fast-rail and related topics.


7. What is your position on gay marriage?

The Bullet Train for Australia Party has no official position on any other policy areas apart from High-Speed-Rail (HSR), Bullet Trains, Very Fast Trains, Fast-rail and related topics.


8. Would you be willing to cross the floor on matters of strong personal conscience or of significant concern for your electorate?

Yes, if it concerns HSR and getting it sooner!


9. What are your views on the NSA collecting private information of Australian citizens and corporations, of the Australian government’s participation in similar programmes, and of the apparent silence of Australian politicians on the matter?

The Bullet Train for Australia Party has no official position on any other policy areas apart from High-Speed-Rail (HSR), Bullet Trains, Very Fast Trains, Fast-rail and related topics.


10. We hear so much negativity about the opposition when election time rolls around– what three things do you consider to be positive about any of your opponents and why?

The Bullet Train for Australia Party has no official position on any other policy areas apart from High-Speed-Rail (HSR), Bullet Trains, Very Fast Trains, Fast-rail and related topics.

Join the conversation

18
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Don’t panic, Doc Dogg, Greens aren’t about environment or socialism any more than Labor is for workers or Liberal is for business or economy.

The compass surprised me too so I really had to do some reading and question my priorities carefully. I am embarrassed to say that I still like the Democrats best. They stand for not squabbling over economic minutiae and just getting on with helping people. Sigh… Might as well be voting for trees this election, for all the clue we are seeing.

moneypenny2612 said :

Does the BTA Party have an official policy on conscience voting by its members?

I’d like to know what BTA candidates think about issues other than HSR.

Otherwise you should just focus your efforts on being a single issue lobby group and leave parliamentary participation to the pros.

This is just another way of lobbying. They know they’ve got more chance of winning powerball twice in a row than winning a seat in parliament. They’re just here to promote fast trains and maybe get it on the agenda of the major parties.

It kind of worries me that I read the policies of the Ficus party and thought “Hmm, I’d vote for that”.

Almost worries me as much as when I put my preferences into the ABC’s Vote Compass site and came up as being aligned with the Greens…THE GREENS!!!

I’m now funding a detailed study into peak efficiency of gnome location. There’s some ficus rally gathering out front but we’ll get to it once we tackle these high profile issues.

p1 said :

poetix said :

curmudgery said :

Damn! I was going to set up a joke party called ‘A Gnome For My Front Garden Party’. I wish I had now – I’d have got more votes than these bastards.

As a founding member of the Gnome for Every Backyard Party, I will direct my preferences against you.

If you both support me to form government, I’ll push through Duel Gnome Legislation in the first 100 days…

P1 – Middle Class Gnomes for Australia Party

Duelling gnomes…vicious little French plaster people with floppy hats shouting en garde.

poetix said :

curmudgery said :

Damn! I was going to set up a joke party called ‘A Gnome For My Front Garden Party’. I wish I had now – I’d have got more votes than these bastards.

As a founding member of the Gnome for Every Backyard Party, I will direct my preferences against you.

If you both support me to form government, I’ll push through Duel Gnome Legislation in the first 100 days…

P1 – Middle Class Gnomes for Australia Party

curmudgery said :

Damn! I was going to set up a joke party called ‘A Gnome For My Front Garden Party’. I wish I had now – I’d have got more votes than these bastards.

As a founding member of the Gnome for Every Backyard Party, I will direct my preferences against you.

BimboGeek said :

Might set up a ficus party. We can always use a few more Buddha trees.

My policies:
Euthanasia: no longer necessary, meditate under a tree.
Rail: make sure there are lots of nice trees along the path
Wealth distribution: trees for the poor!
Housing: treehouses!!!
NBN: fund the crap out of it so we can share pictures of cats in trees
Cyclists: ban lycra
Gay marriage: fabulous
Floor crossing: only if the member is wearing wooden clogs
Privacy: maybe we need a few riverina redgums to block all the snooping equipment
Something positive about the other guy: He looks good in green.

You could change “He looks good in green.” to:
“His body would make great fertilizer”
Is that positive enough?

Might set up a ficus party. We can always use a few more Buddha trees.

My policies:
Euthanasia: no longer necessary, meditate under a tree.
Rail: make sure there are lots of nice trees along the path
Wealth distribution: trees for the poor!
Housing: treehouses!!!
NBN: fund the crap out of it so we can share pictures of cats in trees
Cyclists: ban lycra
Gay marriage: fabulous
Floor crossing: only if the member is wearing wooden clogs
Privacy: maybe we need a few riverina redgums to block all the snooping equipment
Something positive about the other guy: He looks good in green.

Damn! I was going to set up a joke party called ‘A Gnome For My Front Garden Party’. I wish I had now – I’d have got more votes than these bastards.

We could probably afford a very fast train now, however to do so would involve letting a chinese company build it and can you imagine the outrage there! yet at the same time we are happy to whinge it costs too much and workers need to be paid more.

I’m not leaning away from single issue parties. I’m happy for them to run, but they really should at least have a stance on current issues or at least say they’d support the labour/liberal/greens stance on the issue.

ToastFliesRED10:15 am 28 Aug 13

In principle I would probably agree with a fast train network which included Canberra, just as I would prefer to see the re-opening of many of the closed country rail lines to get passengers and good back on trains and off the road (particularly the freight). But there’s no way I can see myself voting for this (or any other) single issue party. To theoretically sit in parliament and only vote on one issue, saying in effect the rest of things like employment, health, immigration etc issues are not something you’re going to vote on is ridiculous.

It’s like if a member of this party (or any other single issue party) gets voted in by some fluke, unless there is a hung parliament then that one voice will be irrelevant and would be nothing more like Dennis Stevenson sitting on the cross benches in the early days of the ACT Legislative Assembly doing nothing much more than brining forward motions to abolish self government.

I dont yet know which way I will vote but I know which way I won’t.

Apparently the BTA candidates sing from the same hymn-sheet. If you aren’t going to bother answering the questions (twice), why respond?

Jim Jones said :

Surely you could link fast trains to euthanasia with a bit of creativity.

The light at the end of the tunnel is a VFT coming your way?

moneypenny26124:54 pm 27 Aug 13

Does the BTA Party have an official policy on conscience voting by its members?

I’d like to know what BTA candidates think about issues other than HSR.

Otherwise you should just focus your efforts on being a single issue lobby group and leave parliamentary participation to the pros.

And fast trains would make the distribution of wealth faster … via train!

Surely you could link fast trains to euthanasia with a bit of creativity.

Holden Caulfield3:42 pm 27 Aug 13

I think what he’s trying to say is, he represents a single issue party.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.