Lance Lawrence, for ARNHEM.

Independent Candidate for ARNHEM - Territory General Election 2016

A man you CAN trust.

Working WITH Countrymen FOR Countrymen.

• Indigenous education, health and industry.
• Self-sufficient agriculture across remote Aboriginal communities and outstations.
• Decriminalisation of cannabis for industrial, medicinal and personal use.
• Shire transparency, accountability and REAL authority for Local Authorities

Lance Lawrence
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POLICIES - the things I stand for:

Adequately resourced remote and Aboriginal education

• The same ratio of ESL students to teachers in remote schools as in urban areas. Currently 27 to 1 authorised by the unions, as opposed to 12 to 1 in urban areas. Increased funding for Teacher’s Aides.
• Further investment and continuation of successful cultural, language and education programs.
• Effective cross and inter-cultural campaigns into Aboriginal citizenship: educating countrymen that their vote holds power. Currently 50% of the population is not on the electoral roll. They should be.
• Support the Gonski Reforms and the Northern Territory Council of Government Schools “Student Based Needs Funding Model”

Better health, better bodies, better prospects for Aboriginal people

• Self-sufficient agriculture for all urban and remote Aboriginal communities: let them have their bodies back.
• Concerted efforts between government and interested public organisations towards the upkeep and development of existing successful Indigenous industries and programs: rangers, arts and craft, local indigenous industries.
• Transparent, results-focused and across the board investment into new industries towards Aboriginal self-determination and self-sufficiency.
• Improvements in Aboriginal health delivery services. More efficient. More accountable. More available.
• Put an end to the decades-long, neglectful bi-partisan trend of focusing on short term, politically expedient results and outcomes that has cut short so many community development programs. A long term, generational commitment towards improving all areas of remote community life is necessary. Infrastructure, services, local engagement, intercultural communication and collaboration: towards Aboriginal self-sufficiency.

Ending the prohibition against Cannabis.

• Let’s do Cannabis better.
• We need to disassociate Cannabis from other harmful illegal drugs. Implying that cannabis is as dangerous as Ice, heroine etc. is like putting a light beer and a bottle of metho in the same schedule.
• Cannabis decriminalised for home cultivation and use: harm minimisation towards alcohol, ICE, domestic violence and malnourishment.
• Allowing Countrymen to grow their own Gunja for personal use is the only way to stop many of the problems that come with the prohibition against cannabis. The demand will never stop, but paying 1000% more for a gram of Gunja than in town areas only serves to line the pockets of rip-off dealers. The smoking is not the problem but the costs leaves less money for food. This is a significant problem in relation to health which needs harm minimisation approaches, rather than waiting for ICE to go bush

Shires: Returning actual Authority to Local Authorities

• Holding the Shires accountable for the cooperative management of their areas.
• At an NLC meeting in Gove before Christmas last year, I was reliably informed that 100% of the delegates from all over Arnhemland were opposed to the Shires.
• Countrymen feel excluded from decision making and have been forced to let go of their powers of self-determination.
• Funding to Shires for remote areas of Arnhemland need to be transparent and better spent towards the real needs of communities.

A treaty for our Indigenous People

• Australia is the only nation in the world that does not have a treaty with its Indigenous peoples.
• To begin to redress the legacies of Colonialism, we need to immediately negotiate a treaty with our Indigenous people rather them being relegated to a pre-amble in our Constitution.

Arts and culture crucial to society

• Recent axing of Australia Council for the Arts funding was outrageous and branded Carnage by the industry, decried as a move to cripple the sector. The Arts provide a vital and necessary platform for cultural expression and Australian culture as a whole.
• Funding levels needs to be returned to their former ratios and increased.

Government accountability

• Accountability, accountability, accountability.
• Transparency, transparency, transparency (Turnbull’s conflict of interest with banks and the pharmaceutical industry).
• Governments are elected to represent people, not financial interests. Political donations should require full disclosure as to their source and conflicts of interest investigated as a matter of corruption.
• Growth for the sake of growth is the premise of cancer.

No fracking for the Territory.                      

• Water and Life are inseparable. No matter the promises made to the economy by harmful industries, who wants to build a house if you don’t have a sustainable planet (environment) to build it on?
• Sustainable and environmentally friendly primary industries. Mining, while beneficial, is turning the Territory into a toxic dump. Mcarthur River. Pine Creek Goldfields. Uranium Park (Kakadu). Mount Todd.
  
• Water, our aquifers, and the biodiversity that we enjoy here in the Territory are reliant on a healthy environment. An absolute ban on fracking practices in our big beautiful backyard is absolutely necessary.
  

Stop selling off the farm

• Australia being sold off to foreign interests.
• 25% of pastoral leases in the Territory are wholly or partly owned by foreign entities.
• The selling off of Port Darwin to foreign interests by our unelected Chief Minister without any consultation equates to treason. This process ought to be reversed.
• Better deals and control for Aboriginal people leasing land to Mining interests.

Bag of stolen lollies

• Australia has for too long been treated like a bag of stolen lollies by those giving it away to all and sundry. Land and minerals administered by the crown are supposed to be held in trust for the people.
• Politicians clearly hand in hand with big business seek to advance their own interests that benefit only a selected few. This collusion should be considered a criminal act.

Taxation and the big end of town

• Super-profits should be subjected to a Super- tax. The mining tax should have been implemented. Australia needs to adopt a sovereign fund model the likes of the one in Norway, which could fund nearly ALL socially progressive and people-focused areas of our society.
• Big business should pay for the privilege of trading in Australia or extracting resources that belong to the people, with adequate proportional taxation rates.
• No tax for the rich? No way.

All 2016 Territory General Election content on this website and linked social media authorised by Lance Lawrence, Candidate for ARNHEM, Numbulwar 0822