Independent candidate for Lyne Rodger Riach has a plan to get the economy rolling and fix unemployment.
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He also wants the federal government to stop subsidizing diesel fuel and wants it banned. He says diesel particulate poisoning is affecting millions of people around the world.
He spent 20 years working as a station master on the railways and is now allergic to diesel. He said health organisations had warned in recent years that it diesel should be banned.
“It is worse than asbestos and mustard gas and our government subsidising it …
We should be running all of our railway equipment on other fuel.
“Three million people in England are dying from diesel particulate poisoning, there are millions of people in Sydney suffering from it. “For kids with undeveloped lungs, its not good.”
Mr Riach said economic problems in Lyne stemmed from around Dungog to north of Port Macquarie.
“The amount of capital equipment that the federal government is paying for -whether it is through contracts or whatever - all that hired equipment from Queensland and Victoria, graders, rollers, is sitting idle,” he said.
“We’ve got hundreds of people out of work … We haven’t got time or the energy to waste leaving all of that equipment laying around. “Roads and bridges need to be fixed, the railway is falling apart.”
Mr Riach said Dungog Shire Council should merge with a neighbouring council and 12 years ago he said Gloucester council, Taree council and Great Lakes council should amalgamate.
“I predicted the collapse of the Japanese economy six months before it happened,” he said.
Australia’s debt also concerns Mr Riach. He said Australia has been printing debt while America prints money.
“Who holds the deeds, who did we borrow the money off – that’s what worries me,” he said. “Eighty cents in every dollar is borrowed from overseas, now that is crazy. “We’ve set ourselves up for massive inter-generational debt and put housing affordability out of reach for a lot of people. “My grandkids are never going to be able to afford a house. “Think about all the people who have saved all their life, money in the bank is worth nothing because inflation is running at two to three per cent.”
Mr Riach thinks voters need to look beyond the two major parties and says that is the only way to help create a bright future.
