HAVING grown up in the central Wheatbelt on a sheep station and broadacre farm, Ian James said he understands the challenges of living in the bush and the benefits of a strong community built around services delivered close to home.
"I spent my youth travelling long distances by bus to school each day and left home as a teen to board in the city," Mr James said.
"I am a farmer who has grown up on the land, I have seen the devastation caused by mismanagement of the land and seen the collapse of communities ravaged by drought and climate change.
"I understand the need for new innovative technologies in agriculture, but I am wary of moving too fast into uncharted waters and risking the very land and environment upon which we depend for our livelihoods."
If elected in Durack, the Greens candidate said he would focus on creating vibrant local communities, sustainable land use and biodiversity conservation.
He said this included communication and internet bandwidth and coverage and bringing health and education services to the regions up to city standards.
"The Greens continue to support the business model that sees the cities subsidise the bush in the installation of the National Broadband Network (NBN)," he said.
"It is proving to be more expensive to roll out the NBN in regional and rural areas - but we should all be treated equally and be able to access services no matter where we live."
Mr James said regional jobs were vital for the electorate, and the Greens have pledged extra funding for $75 million in additional research and development over four years.
"Extra funding will boost key research, including through agricultural research and development corporations," he said.
Under the Greens' plan, existing rural research and development corporations would receive a $75 million boost, while $100 million over four years would be used to establish a new Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.
"The centre will focus on cross-sector agriculture issues that affect all farms, such as climate change, or water and energy challenges," he said.
"A network of 180 agricultural extension officers, costing $67m over three years will help farmers identify new technology and techniques that can help them farm more efficiently and sustainably."
Mr James said to assist farmers more, the Greens would push for more cuts to red-tape and streamline processes.
"Red tape is caused by duplication or contradictory regulation," he said,
"The Greens will continue to work towards streamlining the process in order to assist agribusiness achieve gains in productivity and efficiency and provide improved extension services that are vital to the continued success of agriculture."
Mr James said the Greens proposed a rapid transition to an economy fuelled by renewable energy.
"We plan to reach at least 90 per cent renewable energy by 2030, including a major solar thermal power plant on the Goldfields," he said.
"This would create tens of thousands of jobs in the design and construction of new renewable energy generation many of those, concentrated in regional centres.
"Many of these jobs would be on-going in operations and maintenance as the renewable energy industry already employs more people than coal and gas-fired power plants and is a jobs generator of the future."
As Durack covers a large part of the agricultural and pastoral area of the State, Mr James said the Greens understand the ramifications a ban on live exports would cause.
"This is why we are calling for a transition to a more economically robust and humane alternative to the live export trade by boosting boxed meat exports, which would create thousands of jobs across regional WA," he said.
Mr James has campaigned against growing genetically modified (GM) crops.
Mr James believes problems caused by GM crops will outweigh their benefits in the long-term and wants Durack's farmers to avoid planting them.
He is also against fracking, the practice of drilling and injecting toxic fluids into the ground at high pressure in order to release natural gas.
Mr James vision for sustainability includes the health and education sectors.
He said the Greens believed that all Australians were entitled to free, well-funded, high quality, life-long education and training.
"The Greens will continue to fight against higher fees for students by reducing students' HELP costs by 20 per cent and reinstating the Student Start-Up Scholarships as a grant," he said.
In terms of health, Mr James said he supported funding of a National Rural Generalist Framework.
"As called for by the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, the Greens advocate for the development and funding of the framework to encompass mechanisms to promote and sustain rural general practices, as well as strategies for rural recruitment and retention and other workforce development measures,'' he said.
"A National Rural Generalist Training Program would ensure that the next generations of rural doctors are equipped with the necessary education, training and skills to prepare them for rural medical practice."
Mr James said to address communications blackspots he would advocate for a much higher internet and telephone bandwidth.
"This is an area where the Greens have consistently pointed out the failures and shortcomings of the previous governments, by advocating strongly for much higher internet and telephone bandwidth similar to that which is experienced by people in the city," he said.
"We will continue to push for improved services to the regions."
Jacinta Bolsenbroek
Senior journalist at Farm Weekly.
Senior journalist at Farm Weekly.
