John August

Hi I'm John August. I've long been concerned about the injustices and problems around us. I've stood for the Secular Party and Pirate Party in times past, and now stand for the Pirate branch
of Fusion for the seat of Bennelong. I'm concerned about many things, and need to focus on just a few here.

The Cost of Living and Housing Affordability

Our economy is out of balance because of how housing is treated as an investment. Rather than increasing supply, the price is ratcheted up. Reforming our tax system will not just improve housing affordability, but will also help our economy focus on genuine wealth building rather than distractions.

Our cities become less and less liveable as we play infrastructure catch up. Rather than building first and then putting in infrastructure later, we need to get ahead of the curve.

Climate change is a reality which increases our insurance premiums, meaning additional cost ofliving pressures. We need to do our bit, and not just because it is the right thing to do.

Foreign Policy and Whistleblowing

While the major parties try to sell us on "mateship" and the "fair go", that wasn't how we treated Timor Leste, along with Witness K and Bernard Collaery. We've treated other whistleblowers badly too. It's not just a matter of justice - we can only imagine the economic boost we'd have if we made a serious go at reducing corruption - and supporting whistleblowers is an important part of that, with recent supposed advances falling flat.

We need to make our foreign policy more principled and independent of the US, and forge our own path. This was always the case, but is now even more relevant with the US going off the rails. We need to pull out of AUKUS and find our own path.

Julian Assange was left to wither on the vine till he was ultimately released, without any recognition of the good he has done. Our Governments' approach was in contrast to how we deal with Australians in trouble overseas, when standing up doesn't inconvenience a nation we're fawning up to.

Rather than training our own people, we're drawing on skilled migrants from less well of countries. We're parasitising, and we should really subtract this cost from our foreign aid budget to get a real understanding of whether we're actually helping the rest of the world.