Policy

4:30 pm – 5:00 pm 18 April 2020 

 

Sonia (Interviewer): Dr Li Welcome to the program

You have achieved so much in life, obviously your focus has been on education. Why are you entering politics now? Why being an Independent Candidate and why not join one of the political parties?

I have lived in Canberra for 19 and have lived in Electorate of Yerrabi for 17 years. I have been involved in various associations to work for the local, national and international communities for 27 years. I have a lot of opportunities to work with government agency and politicians as well. Therefore, I think it’s time for me to stand up for election. I will listen to you, stand up for you for a fairer and better Canberra.

In the past two years, I received invitations from different political parties. But after a careful consideration, I decide to stand up for this election as Independent of Yerrabi where I have lived for 17 years. 

1. Please tell our listeners what your platforms are? What kind of issues are important to you?

As I mentioned before, I have lived in Canberra for 19 years and I have lived in my electorate of Yerrabi for 17 years. I love this most liveable city.  

 

1. As a father, I have 2 boys, I care about the future of my two boys.

 

2) As an educator, I care about the education of younger generation and more government grants for learning community languages. 

 

1. As a community leader and an Independent Candidate for Yerrabi, I care about the COVID-19 pandemic, it is on the top of our priority in both ACT and Australia now. I also care about the elders, women, aboriginals in our social security and welfare. I support lower rates, less levies, lower rent, small business, as I understand these are important elements of our everyday life.  I also care about environment and heritage protection. During the bushfire from December 2019 to January 2020, I also went out every day to observe and take photos of the bushfire as record of this natural disaster. I am organising a photo display called I Love Canberra on 1st May this year, I will display some photos to show the community for the remembrance of this natural disaster. I hope this will remind us taking actions to prevent bushfire in the future. 

 

1. As a fast-growing capital city, Canberra is becoming increasingly dynamic and open. The internationalisation of Canberra will be future direction. Under this circumstance, we need more direct flights between Canberra and Asian countries and the rest of the world. 

 

1. My academic background is from education, so I support the schools to teach basic knowledge and basic skills, and I support the international education in ACT region. I am happy to see more international students studying in Canberra. I also support that internationalisation of the University of Canberra, not only having more students coming to study on campus in Canberra but also including exploring the possibility to establish overseas campuses. 

 

As an Independent Candidate of Yerrabi, I would be happy to see that Gungahlin becomes a new and vibrant town centre built as a second CBD in Canberra. I support to build a new hospital in Gungahlin area to reduce the waiting time in other current hospitals. I am also happy to see if we have a library with more multicultural collections and resources and even an International School in Gungahlin district as well. 

 

1. I believe in the importance of education, employment and family. As an Independent Candidate for Yerrabi and all Canberrans, I will monitor the performance of government to ensure that it delivers first-class services, including transport, education, environment, community services and public health including protection from coronavirus.  

2. What would you bring to the political landscape that others may not be able to bring? What sets you apart from the other candidates.

• I said, I will be running of campaign for this election as Independent for Yerrabi. I believe that the independent will truly and directly represent the electorate rather than having a political party between the candidate and electorate. 

 

I am not a professional politician, but I have worked for the local community for 19 years. I come from the local community, I work for the local community and I represent the local community. I have no background of political parties to support me but I believe I have the support from the community and residents in the electorate. 

3. Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, if you were elected, what kind of policies would you advocate to help ease the current situation and any future pandemic of similar nature? What can you do now and what can you do in the future?  Can you draw some of the lessons that will be learnt from the COVID-19 to incorporate into future policies where the ACT government can respond and cope with another pandemic like this one? How would you go about doing this?

1) This year is the tough year for all of us. This coronavirus is unprecedented and this is a disaster of the human being. We are happy to see that it is well-controlled in ACT and Australia, and this is what we can be proud of in the world. But it’s too early to celebrate. I appreciate to continue the lockdown to stay at home, keep social distance and save life. This is a disaster once a century, no one could know this beforehand. However, as the proverb says, “It is not too late to mend the fold even after the some of the sheep have been lost”. I would support to establish a COVID-19 Research Foundation to conduct more research in ACT and protection of the local Canberrans. 

2) In the past few weeks, I have been using Zoom for connecting the community in ACT and Australia. I have been working closely with the colleagues in the federation and local associations to support the schools and teachers. I imported 10,000 masks and donated to the local communities including hospitals, aged care, schools and shops to help to protect the community. I also ordered 5,000 bottles of sanitisers that are also on the way to Canberra for the local community.  I am happy to do whatever I can to protect the community. 

When I visited the local shops in Gungahlin and Dickson, I talked with the shop owners and staff. Masks are so popular and those shop owners and staff like them very much. I visited about 100 shops and donated 2,500 masks. 

From my statistics, 95% of them accepted masks, 75% are delighted to have the masks, from my talk with them. Most of them did not reject wearing masks but they do not have masks or do not know where to get the masks. I am happy I can offer my help. 

3) From last year, we have had a few natural disasters including bushfire, healings attach and this COVID-19 this year.  I would say that the emergency department and agencies in ACT should be reinforced now and we need toimprove the emergency mechanism. 

4. As this is the Women Empowerment Program, I will have to ask what specifically you would be able to do to encourage female participation in the political landscape in particular and the workforce in general.

• I am happy to have this interview with the Women Empowerment Program. I have good working relationship with female colleagues everywhere including workplaces, schools, associations and community. We respect each other and collaborate with each other. 

 

• Today is my birthday and I receiving a lot of birthday greetings in this morning. But I give this special day to my mother who is overseas now as my birthday was the suffering day of my mother. It’s my Thanksgiving Day to my mother. From the childhood to adult, I grew up from the care of my mother, my elder sister, my wife and lots of female colleagues. 

 

• Women shares half of the world. I am happy to work with women in the workplace. I would also like to cooperate with relevant women’s organisations or associations. In October 2019 when we donated to the drought in Queensland, we decided to donate the money we appealed from the multicultural languages’ community via ACT Women’s Association, as I believe it will be in safe hands. 

 

• In my policy statement, I clearly state that I care about the women in the electorate. In Yerrabi, there are a lot of women who have received good education, smart and work professionally. I would be happy to see more and more females to stand up for election and to be politicians in ACT. 

 

• I support gender equality and genuine democracy and am happy to see more females holding higher levels of public office and careers in regional and national politics.

5. What is your response to the increased levels of preventable chronic disease and inadequate access to aged care services as many move away from the capital cities, perhaps moving to Canberra, what kind of policies can you implement to prevent an increase in chronic disease, or provide better access to aged care services in the ACT

• Caring the elders is an important part of my policy and elders need extra care in regards of the chronic disease. The elderly people are a fast-growing group and we need more well-trained carers to work in the aged care sectors. I think we need a more beneficial policy to attract more staff to work in this industry. Comparing to the metropolitans like Sydney and Melbourne, Canberra is smaller but growing dramatically fast. 

6. Canberra is getting more and more crowded. We are now seeing traffic conditions during peak hour akin to those in major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, what potential solutions would you bring to the table should you be elected? How do you feel about the transportation options currently available in Canberra? Do we have enough options? If not, what will you do to increase those? Are current policies by the ACT government adequate in addressing the worsening traffic conditions we are seeing, is light rail helping?

1. Yes, it comes to my concern as well. It is becoming increasingly crowded especially during peak hours. Transport, health and education are the priorities in city life in ACT. The transportation has been improved in recent years but still not enough. The light rail is helpful and symbolic to the modern city, but it is not permanent. The solution of transportation should not only for the time being but also, we should establish a vision for the future.  

 

1. Canberra is growing, and the city is facing growing population. As an independent candidate of Yerrabi, I would propose to build Gungahlin into the second CBD in Canberra, to provide more work opportunities and to balance metropolitan functions. I believe this will relieve the pressure of transportation in Canberra, thereby improving the transportation in ACT and I believe this is the right direction of city development. 

7. In summary, how would you go about implementing some of the polices you have mentioned?

Firstly, the community is my mirror, which means I need the responses from the community to sharpen my policy.

Secondly, I will do more research about the current policies tolist out the issues, concerns and problems arisen from the community. I will always uphold the best interest of the community.

8.  It is not easy being an independent candidate in the ACT without support of the mechanism of a political party, how can Canberrans support you so to help you elected? 

Yes, it’s not easy to stand up as an Independent but I am determined to do so even though I have opportunities to join a political party. 

I hope the Canberrans and the people of the electorate of Yerrabi to support me as their representative in the parliament. I hope people in Canberra support me and the residents of Yerrabi vote me and asking friends and families to vote me as well. I will listen to you, stand for you for a fairer and better Canberra. 

Thankyou Sonia for your interview. 

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