Greens candidate for Riverton Thor Kerr is running in his second election campaign in as many years but it’s not because he is a sucker for punishment.
The Curtin University media and cultural studies lecturer ran in the federal election last year for the seat of Tangney and said it was important he run in the state election to tackle issues impacting the state.
“I was a bit reluctant and slow this time because I’m really busy but it’s still an important thing to do so here I am,” he said.
He said, like the federal election, Roe 8 was a huge issue and he would advocate for it to be scrapped but there were other problems facing the state he wanted to work on.
“The state deals with a lot more practical issues so I guess for the Greens this time around what we’re focussing on is really renewable energy,” he said.
“Emissions in WA are just rising and rising, meanwhile we’ve only got nine per cent of our power generated by renewables compared to the global average of 19 per cent so we’re going to have to catch up on that.
“We’ve been doing some modelling so we can get totally renewable energy, 100 per cent, by 2030 without it costing any more than our existing energy system.
“Once we get it in place it means energy will much cheaper for residents and business and it will give WA a competitive advantage.
“Power costs will keep going up unless they invest in the new technology.”
He said he would also push for more transparency and accountability in government.
“What we’re looking for is transparency around governments, particularly in government sticking to its own policies and in government interpreting the law appropriately,” he said.
“I think we’re in a very dangerous time in terms of the behaviour of the state and the secrecy of the state and the state not working in the interest of the citizens and that’s becoming clearer and clearer is time goes on.”
