Mark Carter, a humble truck driver from Parkes wants to make a difference for his electorate. Standing as the One Nation candidate for Parkes, he’s a man who values action over talk.
When asked why he’s chosen to move into politics he said, “I figured I can’t do any worse than who we’ve got in there at the moment.”
“One Nation is the party that best aligned with my views so I approached them to become a candidate.”
Mr Carter has been living in the area for the last 15 years and driving trucks since 2019. He does some long-haul drives from anywhere from South Australia all the way up to Brisbane and believes that his strong work ethic will serve him well if elected.
“Parkes is a big electorate and lucky I’m not afraid to drive around all of it to get to talk to people,” he said.
“We never see our current representative; he’s just hidden away in the Riverina.”
(The town of Parkes was previously in the electorate of Riverina, but was redistributed into the electorate of Parkes at this election.)
When asked what he feels the biggest issue faced by the Parkes electorate he laughingly said it was impossible to nail it to just one.
“One of the things I do feel strongly about is the waste in Canberra though, and if we can get that sorted, it’ll help a lot of other things,” said Mr Carter.
This notion of governmental waste is indeed one of the key policy points for One Nation, with their website stating that they believe they can achieve savings of up to $90 billion per year through a targeted reform program.
“We’ve got to take the heat out of the economy and our plan to take 26c of the fuel excise will go a long way to help with that.”
“The cost of living is such a huge issue.”
One Nation’s other Cost of Living measures include reductions in electricity bills, dumping the “Beer Tax”, increasing the Medicare Rebate, and tax relief measures for aged and veteran pensioners, families and self-funded retirees.
Mr Carter also has a strong desire to see what he calls “Black Spots” removed from the landscape that he so regularly drives through.
“We need to get rid of all these solar panels – farm land should be for farmers to farm food on. Solar panels are not the answer, and neither are electric vehicles, not even mentioning what we’re going to do in 10 years’ time when we need to try and get rid of all the old ones,” said Mr Carter.
“I’m pro-nuclear power,” he said in answer to what he sees as an alternative for cleaner energy.
Mr Carter’s direct, no-nonsense conversational style is also something he sees as an advantage he has over the current government.
“I’m not into waffling, not like our current prime minister,” he said.
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