By Jaidyn Kennedy
Donald Trump, the Paris Climate Accord and gender fluidity have entered the Werribee by-election as the Family First party nominated local Matt Emerson as its candidate on Thursday, January 23.
Emerson, a father of five who works locally in IT, said he would fight to cut power prices, protect faith-based schools and fight for the reinstatement of two genders at his campaign launch in Werribee.
Among the policy priorities Mr Emerson listed was the freedom for faith-based schools to control their hiring and curriculum policies.
“As a parent of faith, and local father of school-aged children, I want faith-based schools in Werribee to have the freedom to employ the right staff for their parent communities,” he said.
“I want faith-based schools to be able to simply say ’no’ to adopting agendas that don’t align with a school’s faith-based values.”
Mr Emerson also said he would advocate for the promotion of a two-gender paradigm in education and sports.
“As a father of four girls, their ability to participate safely in sports is important to me and so I would also fight to ensure girls’ and women’s sports are protected from biological males identifying as female.
“Before President Trump announced a return to the biological reality of two genders, Family First has been fighting the dangerous child-harming gender fluid ideology.”
Citing the cost of living and financial pressure as the biggest cause of family breakdowns, reduced child well-being and increased crime, he stated an intent to pressure policymakers into abandoning the 2015 Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change that Australia ratified in 2016.
“The political establishment’s unnecessary Paris premium on electricity bills must be fought so family budgets can get relief,” he said.
Family First will direct preferences to the Liberal candidate Steve Murphy.
Former Liberal MP and Family First senate candidate Bernie Finn said “While Liberal Party policy on gender, power prices and resolve to fight for the freedom of faith- based schools has a long way to go, Steve Murphy is someone Family First is happy to allocate a number two preference.”
