John Pratt
Ex RAN, RAAF & Army (yes all three) John served for 25 years in the Australian armed forces. He moved to Western Australia in 1976 with the RAAF. "I went to Don Chip's town hall meeting in Perth and became a founding member of the Australian Democrats. I was membership secretary for the WA branch." he said. John became interested in politics after reading the Club of Rome's book "Limits to Growth". He wrote several pieces for Margo Kingston's Webdiary in 2000 and covered the Kevin07 campaign in Leichhardt Far North Queensland.
John Pratt
I have done several climate change MOOC courses at Exeter, Macquarie and Queensland Universities. Exeter encouraged students to blog, and as a result I opened jpratt27.wordpress.com where I cover climate change.

Gary Oliver’s ancestors have been looking after the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef around Mosman in far north Queensland for over 50,000 years. He has served in the Australian army and has extensive public service experience. Oliver is the Greens candidate for Leichhardt, a huge electorate which runs from Cairns up through Cape York to the Torres Strait.

Gary Oliver marching through Cairns on May Day. Photo: supplied

I was excited to interview him for the NoFibs #ReefReport and I met up with him at the students Climate Strike outside Warren Entsch’s office last Friday.

Gary Oliver supports the students on Climate Strike. Photo: supplied

Key messages

“Makarrata”

“A truth justice commission has happened in every Commonwealth country except for Australia.”

“Close the gap.”

“Aboriginal people have had to do more with less.”

“One indicator is Aboriginal children in care. At the time of the Rudd apology there were 3600 Aboriginal children in care. Today there are about 18,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait children in care.”

“62,000 jobs are dependent on the reef. We have to protect the reef.”

“Education is our third-largest export. James Cook University has a beautiful campus we could expand on that to create jobs.”

“Public housing is a solution for poverty.”

“The students on Climate Strike are the voice of the future.”

“We need to enact a Climate Emergency Bill now.”

“We need to bring (electric) power back into government hands.”

“Micro grids are the new sustainable jobs.”

“To save the reef no new coal mines and phase out coal by 2030.”

“We need to transition those coal mining communities to new sustainable jobs.”

“19.4-billion-dollar package from taxing the three largest companies that currently pay no tax.”

“There will be more jobs in renewables.”

The Greens have the strongest climate policy.
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