OSCAR State Election 2017 Draft Action Plan

Background

The Premier has announced an election date of 25 November 2017 which is only 4 weeks away and with pre-polling several weeks prior voting can commence in a couple of weeks.

OSCAR has previously played a role in facilitating forums, providing responses to community questions and candidate profiles on web sites to support the democratic process with access to information about candidates and their positions.

OSCAR’s focus has been on local government but with the interdependence of levels of government in the federal system there is an opportunity to support the Sunshine Coast community by engaging state election candidates on local government issues.

OSCAR will ensure that it approaches the election in a non-partisan way. We see our role as providing information to our membership. It is for our member organisations to determine how they use this information.

Our objectives

• To ensure local government related issues, that the Sunshine Coast community are seeking action on, are raised with election candidates prior to the election on 25 November 2017,
• To ensure the range of issues we are seeking answers on are in line with the OSCAR members’ requirements and help to advance the reform agenda OSCAR is pursuing on behalf of our members,
• To ensure the position of individual candidates in the 8 electorates are communicated to members so they can make an informed decision in casting their vote – keep in mind that with the 4 main parties (LNP, ALP, Greens and One Nation) and independents there could be 40 plus candidates contesting the 8 Sunshine Coast seats,
• To get commitments from candidates and parties on issues identified by member organisations including, but not limited to:

o   Local Government Governance issues – eg ban on developer donations, confidential sessions etc
o   Primacy of our Planning Schemes
o   Handling of Local Government complaints
o   Cost of Right To Information for Not For Profit groups
o   Population Growth implications and policies to deal with this
o   Transport Infrastructure
o   Climate Change

What can OSCAR do in the time available?

Given our resources (limited!) and the time we have before the election, the OSCAR executive is considering the following:

• Conduct a forum in a central location where candidates can be provide with an opportunity to make their commitments on the key issues we identify and questions we provide them – this will need to be limited to 1 or 2 spokespeople from each political parties and key independents we identify,
• Survey candidates on their position on the key issues we identify and then publish their responses on our website, Facebook page and via emails to our member organisations for distribution to their members in turn,
• Publishing contact details of candidates in each electorate as they become available,
• Provide links to the Policy documents of the political parties contesting the election,
• Work with other peak organisations we have links with to ensure a concerted and consistent message is articulated in relation to local government issues,
• Investigate paid advertising in the media indicating our wish list and/or later in the campaign identifying candidates that provide positive commitments on the issues we identify.

We need your support and suggestions – mail@oscar.org.au if you can assist with any of these activities or have issues we should be including in our survey of candidates and topics for the proposed candidate forum.