By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey deputy mayor Rosalie Crestani is standing for election in the Australian Senate.
Cr Crestani has been endorsed as the lead candidate of Christian conservative party Rise Up Australia.
Her platform includes foreign-owned companies paying a “fair share” of tax, tightening border security and to investigate building thorium nuclear reactors or battery supplies.
Thorium was a potential means for lower energy prices and cleaner emissions, Cr Crestani said.
Being more stable than uranium, “it is feasible and it’s something that Australia is ready for”.
She fears that the medevac-ing of sick asylum seekers from Manus Island to Christmas Island or the Australian mainland for hospital treatment could be exploited by people smugglers.
She would like the “loophole” closed, with rare exceptions such as orphaned children. No other family members would be allowed to follow them to Australia.
Cr Crestani does not support the Greater Dandenong Council-led campaign for the Government to reverse its cuts to Status Resolution Support Services payments to asylum seekers living in the community.
The council argues that the cuts leave hundreds of asylum seekers and their families without income and destitute.
The Labor Party has pledged to reverse the cuts, if elected to Government.
“There’s too much support now. The aged pensioners are missing out on the support they need ,” Cr Crestani said.
“We have to strike a good balance.”
Cr Crestani says she’s willing to work with any party or independent.
She describes Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a “great leader compared to what’s been in the past”.
A large field of small parties is expected to contest and make the Senate’s make-up nearly impossible to predict.
One of the players is the much-advertised United Australia Party fronted by Clive Palmer.
“I certainly think he’s got more money than us,” Cr Crestani quipped.
“We can be trusted. If we can be faithful with a little (money), we can then be faithful with a lot.”
She said the party believed that “God takes interest in the affairs of mankind and Christian beliefs are inherent to good governance”.
Having run in the 2013 federal elections, Cr Crestani felt there was a “changing of the guard” happening in national politics.
“It’s an ideal opportunity to put out ideas that the country has to change.”
