Independents: East Metropolitan Region
Feb. 21st, 2021 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
b_auspolAnd onto East Metropolitan, which only have three groups for me to investigate.
Why do people do this? SERIOUSLY?
The best lead I’ve managed to find for David Larsen is that he might be a geologist working for a mining exploration company in WA. Or possibly a language researcher who’s published about the Noongar language in WA.
Brian Brightman, however, is a serial candidate. I’m just going to link the WA Today article about his history as a One Nation candidate as it’s a read and a half. He ended up running as an independent during the 2017 state election for Joondalup and netting 3% of the vote.
On this basis I am going to look at Brian’s policy positions unless anyone finds me something about David Larsen.
Brian, as a failed One Nation candidate, thinks Pauline is “a good woman”. He has a history of a criminal conviction for theft and of drug addiction, leading to a policy of “the ‘war on drugs’ was an abject failure and the only way to treat ice addicts was to put them on an isolated island.” He’s a fan of President Duterte’s war on drugs.
Actually this is so fantastic we need some more of it:
Why not put them on an island and say 'here's all the wood you need, here's seeds, here's animals make yourself self-sufficient'.
The government gives them ice that they have manufactured themselves and the ice addicts stay on the island until they've hit rock bottom and then they make the decision to get off it.
And when they get to rock bottom and say they want to get out, then you move them to a different island.
And when you are ready, then you can move to the next place and they go cold turkey.
Then they get introduced back into society.
Uhhh. That’s a policy. Wow. I think there are possibly more humane and medically supervised options than “dump them on an island” but clearly Brian feels very strongly about solving addiction.
Brian also wants to ban Muslim migration (he must be loving the border closures) and thinks there will be open warfare in the streets of WA if migration continues. Wow, what a charmer.
Looking at the group voting ticket, it is all the independents, followed by WA Party, Legalise Cannabis, Health Australia, Shooters, GAP, DSP, then One Nation. Interesting that One Nation is solidly centre of the ballot: I sense that a grudge is being held, though preferences will probably still end up there. The bottom of the ticket is the Greens, Sustainable Australia and Labor. Sustainable are clearly too leftie for them despite sharing the “block migration” policy overlap.
Now personally, I have the opinion that if the only information I can find out about a candidate is “this person was too hot to handle for ONE NATION”, they’re probably not a great candidate. But if you like plain talking about drug addiction… I actually suggest you check out Peter Lyndon-James instead.
Don’t vote for these idiots.
Hayley Doan
Hayley has an email address listed of “australianhayley” which is giving me the vibe that she’s probably some sort of nationalist. Creepy. I suspect I may have found her YouTube channel, because the description says “Australia Forever” but there’s no public content on it. Put up a bad election video, Hayley!
If this person is our candidate, I’ve also found her in the comments of a Sky News video about the WA lockdown, saying “Children are specifically exempt from wearing masks. I didn't wear a mask either as I too had difficulty breathing.”
So this candidate is quite possibly a COVID denier.
There’s also a Hayley Doan who was organising a children’s religious education group at a Catholic church in Maylands back in 2013. Unknown if she’s connected or the same person.
Looking to the group voting ticket given that is the only working evidence of Hayley’s political position, I see she’s preferenced WA Party, Sustainable Australia, then David Larsen’s group, the Lib Dems, Health Australia, Shooters, GAP, DSP, No Mandatory Vax. The bottom of the ticket is Labor, Legalise Cannabis and Peter Lyndon-James. She really doesn’t like Peter.
Given the fact that Hayley has not publicly provided any evidence of her actual political position outside of the group voting ticket that tends rather Druery and the fact that the crumbs she’s left about her identity seem to point towards Sky News watching denialist behaviour, I would not vote for her.
Of course, if she decided to tell us anything about herself, I could reach another conclusion.
Peter Lyndon-James
https://peterforwa.com.au/
Finally, someone with a website!
Peter Lyndon-James had an extremely rough start to life. He’s upfront about it: it’s why he’s running for government. He was in and out of the justice system and a drug addict for around 30 years, and now runs a rehabilitation facility, Shalom House.
“It’s time to put common sense back on the table” – and there we go, harkening to common sense like every independent ever.
I did a little digging into Shalom House, because when you have such a big part of your identity tied up in an organisation, it’s worth seeing how the organisation is regarded (plus rehabilitation centres can vary a lot). It’s apparently got the reputation of being rather cult-like, with a heavy religious focus: shaving residents heads, compulsory bible study and church attendance (born-again, 3 times per week), and no swearing, smoking or visitors. It runs a cold turkey detox program for new residents, instead of insisting that people be clean on entering. It doesn’t take government funding and insists on residents paying, firstly out of their Centrelink and then from their wages after helping them get jobs. It claims it’s the “strictest” drug rehab centre in the country, and I’d say it’s probably up there. It’s had some conflicts with planning regulations and nearby residents, as they seem to be a bit of a ‘seek permission after the fact’ organisation and they’re not accredited. They also fail to track any statistics on the success of their rehabilitation program: apparently the best public interpretation is that it’s around a 5% success rate.
It sounds very much like Peter got himself clean partly via religion and as it worked for him is trying to help others the same way. He sounds a bit too fundamentalist for my taste. His treatment regime is definitely out of step with current best practices, taking a lot longer than standard publicly funded treatment (1-3 years vs 30-90 days, with a 5% vs 35% completion rate). I’d conclude “sketchy but with good intentions”. I wouldn’t want to refer a friend or family member to this place.
Onto his policy concerns:
“The prison system is flawed” – Peter wants more rehabilitation, reintegration and resocialisation in prisons, as well as better drug and alcohol rehab in prison. He also suggests having “a cultural prison for Aboriginal people from the bush” which could either be effective or very very bad, depending on how it was run. I suspect it might end up the latter.
Peter also wants law reform on sentencing: “I call for the abolishment of mandatory sentencing and to give trust and discernment back to the sentencing magistrate at the same time change sentencing by implementing a harder system to act as a deterrent.” I’m not surprised to see someone who actually interacts with the justice system calling out mandatory sentencing as inefficient. To balance it he wants magistrates to have access to harsher sentences though.
Peter wants drug reform (shocking I know): he doesn’t like government handouts, DOES like welfare cards not straight Centrelink payments, thinks other current treatment programs for drug addiction “are taking people in addiction from an illegal drug to a legal one - it is not fixing the problem”. He’s also concerned about the amount of gaol sentences for youths for minor drug possession charges. Now personally, I don’t agree with him on pretty much all of this (aside from “yes, please, don’t sentence minors with minor drug possession to gaol or a youth detention facility, for goodness’ sakes!”) as I heavily prefer the compassionate treatment rather than hard consequences side of rehabilitation.
He wants more independence for not-for-profit foundations, which given what’s been said about the one he runs, I have to side-eye. He clearly wants government out of his way. “Enable them to be more independent based on their visions and introduce an independent assessment committee and two review committees, where taxpayers money is concerned, for 100% transparency and accountability.” I can see his interest, I just don’t think “independent based on their visions” is necessarily the right goal.
Peter wants to keep local and state government more accountable by more media investigations into government authorities, more access under FOI legislation, and the media having to have “factual proof” for their stories. He sounds like he deeply distrusts most politicians.
Final policy is “Families matter” which is more education for parents about how to parent, which is fair enough seeing the side of community that he does. He wants more responsibility for parents over their kids going astray (uh), more early intervention for kids involved with drugs, zero-tolerance towards domestic violence, and a review of parental rights for child visitation, which sounds like he wants more supervised child access visits.
Over in the group voting ticket, Peter preferences Australian Christians, then two members of the Liberal Party, One Nation, then Shooters. Bottom of the ticket is Labor, Legalise Cannabis (ha! Consistency) and the other independents. I'd say "Australian Christians" is about the speed I'd consider him at: there are worse right wing folk and you can see the underlying compassion - I just don't like the way they go about demonstrating it.
All together: I don’t think I would vote for Peter Lyndon-James, but he certainly has strong opinions about drugs and rehabilitation. I think I would honestly still prefer someone with a bit more compassion, as Jacqui Lambie does, in this space, but he’s at least articulate about what his concerns and interests are, unlike the Column A folk on this ballot.
Probably below the Liberals for me, but before the dangerous crazy section.
David Wayne Larsen & Brian Brightman
Why do people do this? SERIOUSLY?
The best lead I’ve managed to find for David Larsen is that he might be a geologist working for a mining exploration company in WA. Or possibly a language researcher who’s published about the Noongar language in WA.
Brian Brightman, however, is a serial candidate. I’m just going to link the WA Today article about his history as a One Nation candidate as it’s a read and a half. He ended up running as an independent during the 2017 state election for Joondalup and netting 3% of the vote.
On this basis I am going to look at Brian’s policy positions unless anyone finds me something about David Larsen.
Brian, as a failed One Nation candidate, thinks Pauline is “a good woman”. He has a history of a criminal conviction for theft and of drug addiction, leading to a policy of “the ‘war on drugs’ was an abject failure and the only way to treat ice addicts was to put them on an isolated island.” He’s a fan of President Duterte’s war on drugs.
Actually this is so fantastic we need some more of it:
Why not put them on an island and say 'here's all the wood you need, here's seeds, here's animals make yourself self-sufficient'.
The government gives them ice that they have manufactured themselves and the ice addicts stay on the island until they've hit rock bottom and then they make the decision to get off it.
And when they get to rock bottom and say they want to get out, then you move them to a different island.
And when you are ready, then you can move to the next place and they go cold turkey.
Then they get introduced back into society.
Uhhh. That’s a policy. Wow. I think there are possibly more humane and medically supervised options than “dump them on an island” but clearly Brian feels very strongly about solving addiction.
Brian also wants to ban Muslim migration (he must be loving the border closures) and thinks there will be open warfare in the streets of WA if migration continues. Wow, what a charmer.
Looking at the group voting ticket, it is all the independents, followed by WA Party, Legalise Cannabis, Health Australia, Shooters, GAP, DSP, then One Nation. Interesting that One Nation is solidly centre of the ballot: I sense that a grudge is being held, though preferences will probably still end up there. The bottom of the ticket is the Greens, Sustainable Australia and Labor. Sustainable are clearly too leftie for them despite sharing the “block migration” policy overlap.
Now personally, I have the opinion that if the only information I can find out about a candidate is “this person was too hot to handle for ONE NATION”, they’re probably not a great candidate. But if you like plain talking about drug addiction… I actually suggest you check out Peter Lyndon-James instead.
Don’t vote for these idiots.
Hayley Doan
Hayley has an email address listed of “australianhayley” which is giving me the vibe that she’s probably some sort of nationalist. Creepy. I suspect I may have found her YouTube channel, because the description says “Australia Forever” but there’s no public content on it. Put up a bad election video, Hayley!
If this person is our candidate, I’ve also found her in the comments of a Sky News video about the WA lockdown, saying “Children are specifically exempt from wearing masks. I didn't wear a mask either as I too had difficulty breathing.”
So this candidate is quite possibly a COVID denier.
There’s also a Hayley Doan who was organising a children’s religious education group at a Catholic church in Maylands back in 2013. Unknown if she’s connected or the same person.
Looking to the group voting ticket given that is the only working evidence of Hayley’s political position, I see she’s preferenced WA Party, Sustainable Australia, then David Larsen’s group, the Lib Dems, Health Australia, Shooters, GAP, DSP, No Mandatory Vax. The bottom of the ticket is Labor, Legalise Cannabis and Peter Lyndon-James. She really doesn’t like Peter.
Given the fact that Hayley has not publicly provided any evidence of her actual political position outside of the group voting ticket that tends rather Druery and the fact that the crumbs she’s left about her identity seem to point towards Sky News watching denialist behaviour, I would not vote for her.
Of course, if she decided to tell us anything about herself, I could reach another conclusion.
Peter Lyndon-James
https://peterforwa.com.au/
Finally, someone with a website!
Peter Lyndon-James had an extremely rough start to life. He’s upfront about it: it’s why he’s running for government. He was in and out of the justice system and a drug addict for around 30 years, and now runs a rehabilitation facility, Shalom House.
“It’s time to put common sense back on the table” – and there we go, harkening to common sense like every independent ever.
I did a little digging into Shalom House, because when you have such a big part of your identity tied up in an organisation, it’s worth seeing how the organisation is regarded (plus rehabilitation centres can vary a lot). It’s apparently got the reputation of being rather cult-like, with a heavy religious focus: shaving residents heads, compulsory bible study and church attendance (born-again, 3 times per week), and no swearing, smoking or visitors. It runs a cold turkey detox program for new residents, instead of insisting that people be clean on entering. It doesn’t take government funding and insists on residents paying, firstly out of their Centrelink and then from their wages after helping them get jobs. It claims it’s the “strictest” drug rehab centre in the country, and I’d say it’s probably up there. It’s had some conflicts with planning regulations and nearby residents, as they seem to be a bit of a ‘seek permission after the fact’ organisation and they’re not accredited. They also fail to track any statistics on the success of their rehabilitation program: apparently the best public interpretation is that it’s around a 5% success rate.
It sounds very much like Peter got himself clean partly via religion and as it worked for him is trying to help others the same way. He sounds a bit too fundamentalist for my taste. His treatment regime is definitely out of step with current best practices, taking a lot longer than standard publicly funded treatment (1-3 years vs 30-90 days, with a 5% vs 35% completion rate). I’d conclude “sketchy but with good intentions”. I wouldn’t want to refer a friend or family member to this place.
Onto his policy concerns:
“The prison system is flawed” – Peter wants more rehabilitation, reintegration and resocialisation in prisons, as well as better drug and alcohol rehab in prison. He also suggests having “a cultural prison for Aboriginal people from the bush” which could either be effective or very very bad, depending on how it was run. I suspect it might end up the latter.
Peter also wants law reform on sentencing: “I call for the abolishment of mandatory sentencing and to give trust and discernment back to the sentencing magistrate at the same time change sentencing by implementing a harder system to act as a deterrent.” I’m not surprised to see someone who actually interacts with the justice system calling out mandatory sentencing as inefficient. To balance it he wants magistrates to have access to harsher sentences though.
Peter wants drug reform (shocking I know): he doesn’t like government handouts, DOES like welfare cards not straight Centrelink payments, thinks other current treatment programs for drug addiction “are taking people in addiction from an illegal drug to a legal one - it is not fixing the problem”. He’s also concerned about the amount of gaol sentences for youths for minor drug possession charges. Now personally, I don’t agree with him on pretty much all of this (aside from “yes, please, don’t sentence minors with minor drug possession to gaol or a youth detention facility, for goodness’ sakes!”) as I heavily prefer the compassionate treatment rather than hard consequences side of rehabilitation.
He wants more independence for not-for-profit foundations, which given what’s been said about the one he runs, I have to side-eye. He clearly wants government out of his way. “Enable them to be more independent based on their visions and introduce an independent assessment committee and two review committees, where taxpayers money is concerned, for 100% transparency and accountability.” I can see his interest, I just don’t think “independent based on their visions” is necessarily the right goal.
Peter wants to keep local and state government more accountable by more media investigations into government authorities, more access under FOI legislation, and the media having to have “factual proof” for their stories. He sounds like he deeply distrusts most politicians.
Final policy is “Families matter” which is more education for parents about how to parent, which is fair enough seeing the side of community that he does. He wants more responsibility for parents over their kids going astray (uh), more early intervention for kids involved with drugs, zero-tolerance towards domestic violence, and a review of parental rights for child visitation, which sounds like he wants more supervised child access visits.
Over in the group voting ticket, Peter preferences Australian Christians, then two members of the Liberal Party, One Nation, then Shooters. Bottom of the ticket is Labor, Legalise Cannabis (ha! Consistency) and the other independents. I'd say "Australian Christians" is about the speed I'd consider him at: there are worse right wing folk and you can see the underlying compassion - I just don't like the way they go about demonstrating it.
All together: I don’t think I would vote for Peter Lyndon-James, but he certainly has strong opinions about drugs and rehabilitation. I think I would honestly still prefer someone with a bit more compassion, as Jacqui Lambie does, in this space, but he’s at least articulate about what his concerns and interests are, unlike the Column A folk on this ballot.
Probably below the Liberals for me, but before the dangerous crazy section.
