08/04/2025
📢 Stewart Brooker – Candidate Forum Responses
**🔢 Q1. Cost of Living**
Too many in our community are struggling to keep up with the cost of groceries, rent, fuel, and medical bills. As an independent, I’m pushing for a **Minimum Cost of Living Index** to tie government support payments to actual living costs, not outdated CPI models. This means adjusting pensions, JobSeeker, and parenting payments to reflect real expenses. I also support **banning supermarket price gouging**, regulating essential costs, and delivering **energy rebates** for households doing it tough.
**🎓 Q2. Medicare**
Yes — I support **adding dental and mental health to Medicare**. Dental health impacts physical health, and poor access to mental health care is leaving people behind. I want to see **public dental clinics**, increased **bulk-billed psychology sessions**, and expanded rural access. Health is health — and it should all be covered.
**🧑🧼 Q3. NDIS**
The NDIS must remain a right for people with disability. I will fight to ensure **no one is removed from the NDIS** until proper, person-centred alternative supports are in place. I support **co-designed reform**, listening to participants, families, and advocates to make the system stronger, fairer, and simpler.
**🚑 Q4. Domestic Violence**
This is an issue where we must listen to the experts. I’m working with **survivors and frontline advocates**, including Michelle Faye and Michelle Beattie, who have been consulting with the **head of the police union** to draft recommendations for the state government. I’m not an expert — and I don’t pretend to be. I’m here to **amplify the voices** of those who live and work with this issue daily. I support a **national rollout of the SA Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme** and securing **long-term funding** for services, prevention, and survivor-led solutions.
**🏠 Q5. Housing Affordability**
Housing is a human right. I support a **federal affordable housing build program** to put homes in reach for everyday Australians. We need **rent caps**, an end to **rent bidding**, and a **phasing out of negative gearing** for investors buying existing homes. I want to see **shared equity schemes** and the use of **public land for public housing**, especially for essential workers, single parents, and low-income earners.
**📈 Q6. Super for Housing**
No — superannuation is for retirement, not to be used as a house deposit. Policies that allow super withdrawals **inflate house prices** and leave people worse off later in life. I support **first-home support schemes** that don’t raid your retirement savings, like shared equity models and subsidised public builds.
**🌍 Q7. Left or Right?**
Leftish, but is more of a party thing. I’m **independent and community-first**. I believe in good ideas from anywhere. I support strong public services, fair economics, and real-world solutions. I won’t toe a party line. I’ll work with anyone who’s serious about delivering for Fadden.
**⚡ Q8. Gas Reservation**
Yes — we should reserve a portion of our gas for Australians. WA already does this successfully. I support a **domestic gas reservation policy** so households and local businesses don’t have to pay export-level prices for our own resources. It’s basic economic sovereignty.
**⚖️ Q9. Nuclear Power**
Not now. **Nuclear is too slow and too expensive** to solve today’s energy crisis. If **small modular reactors (SMRs)** become safe, affordable and commercially viable, I’m open to discussing them in the future. But right now, we need **renewables, batteries, and storage** to deliver cheap, fast energy.
**🌎 Q10. Immigration**
Immigration benefits Australia, but we need **better planning**. The issue isn’t the number of people — it’s that we haven’t matched growth with housing, transport, and health investment. I support **sustainable, skills-based and regional migration** that comes with proper infrastructure planning.
**🔄 Q11. Preferences**
I will **not be issuing a how-to-vote card**. Voting is a **privilege**, and people should make their own decisions after getting to know the candidates. In fact, I believe **how-to-vote cards should be banned**. They manipulate rather than inform. I trust voters to think for themselves.
**🌟 Q12. Your Party**
I don’t have a party — and that’s the strength of my campaign. I’m not here to serve a faction, I’m here to serve **you**. I’m proud to be an independent voice for Fadden, free to vote based on what this community needs, not what a party room says.
# # ✅ YES/NO QUICK ROUND:
- Reducing student HECS/HELP debts — ✅ Yes
- Nuclear power — ❌ No (Not now — maybe if SMRs become viable)
- Renewable energy — ✅ Yes
- Super withdrawals for house deposits — ❌ No
- Banning supermarket price gouging — ✅ Yes
- Stopping new coal mining projects — ✅ Yes
- Increasing the defence budget — ❌ No
- Energy rebates for homes — ✅ Yes
- Banning gambling ads during sports — ✅ Yes
- Banning social media for under 16s — ❌ No
- Free TAFE — ✅ Yes
- Increasing childcare subsidies — ✅ Yes
