Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

If you could ask Jeanie Walker, from the Australian Democrats, one question, what would it be and why?
- Yahoo!7 Australia Answers Team

Just two days until the 2010 Federal Election! How will you be voting? Have you considered that your vote needn’t be for Labor or Liberal?

There are other parties with representatives who are just as passionate and veterans of the Australian Government, one such person being Jeanie Walker, the Australian Democrats Lead Senate Candidate for South Australia and National Lead Candidate.

Jeanie has been taking the time to answer all the questions you’ve been posing to her when time allows between campaigning and spending time with her family, for which we thank her!

Here are a few more answers to your questions…

David G asked “What are you doing about unemployment and the homeless?
I think greatest problem in Australia is our homeless problem, These issue’s need to be addressed before it gets out of control, unemployment is the big cause, Our kids are dying out there on the streets and got no incentive for the future which leads to there demise. They should not be on the streets in a first-class country”:

A. This is essentially about poverty, and its many causes – principally unemployment or underemployment – and its consequences such as homelessness.  Sadly, government resorts to immigration to solve skills shortages when they should be training and re-training Australians, with a particular emphasis on those without jobs.  National infrastructure projects, such as the needed extension of the rail system would be able to provide many jobs over a long period of time.  And we need to ensure that the wealthy pay their taxes so that the money is there to get such projects up and running.

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Mister_T07 asked “We should all be free to live our lives how we want to. if this was so why have a government to lead us in the first place, ask her what the Treaty of Versailles meant for Australians and Australia as what it was suppose to represent and what it did do was completely different as research stated it was to give Australia an Identity which it did not achieve”:

A. The party’s objectives are specific that this freedom is only available if it does not interfere with the rights of others.  Therefore, much of Democrat policy is about redressing the imbalances, and even violations which occur when the rights of others are infringed and trampled on.

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Matthew Fowler asked “Given Jeanie has written, “My current career is in Aboriginal crisis accommodation youth support work with foster children, which I love. I am concerned about Indigenous welfare and feel there is a huge amount of work to be done beyond saying ‘Sorry’. Simply handing out money is not the solution when cultural respect is not present.” … Why is it that we Australian Democrats as a Party and a (SA Division) Inc still have not like the Greens even acknowledged 1stNations Sovereignty especially when Adelaide Branch advised now (SA Division) Inc Public Officer & Vice President Administration Heather Southcott to do so in 1987? These obvious sorts of questions and queries could have been sorted out years ago by we Australian Democrats as a Party yet curiously despite even have a Deputy Party Leader & NSW Senator Aden Ridgeway, we did & have & possibly will not? Why is that the Dems National & SA State Websites do not even have their respective Constitutions publicly published especially as the Dems Value “honesty”?”:

A. We should be working in partnership with, and not at cross purposes to, Aboriginal people. Greater indigenous involvement is needed at local levels of decision-making across Australia and this applies in all aspects of their society from health to education. Nearly all of our Election 2010 Manifesto policies contain elements of Indigenous culture and how they should be involved, as well as Aboriginal specific legislation. This can be viewed at www.democrats.org.au/policies.

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Al asked “When will politicians consider space in their vision of the future? We seem stuck with matters on the ground when many things could be brought on by conditions beyond our current control.”:

A. Probably because the matters on the ground, such as freedom, peace and preserving the planet are all-consuming. There is not another planet ready for us to live on, nor another solar system that we can get to in our lives, so I prefer to work with what we have.

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Thank you to Jeanie and the Australian Democrats for taking the time to answer our questions!

If you want to ask a question of Jeanie and her party, they will be doing so for the next few days, so head on over to Answers and post your question for them. And be sure to check  back here regularly for your answers.

Kate
Community Manager