John Pratt

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.

Although I’m new to NoFibs, I have been blogging for over 10 years.

I first met Margo Kingston in 2007 when she asked me to report on Leichhardt (Far North Queensland) electorate during the Kevin07 campaign. Leichhardt had the largest swing of the elction, 14{17ac88c265afb328fa89088ab635a2a63864fdefdd7caa0964376053e8ea14b3} to Labor.

I now live in Mandurah, Western Australia in the Canning Electorate. Liberal Candidate Andrew Hastie, has accused “Eastern States Twitterati” of not being local, but I am far more local than Andrew will ever be.

I am known as @Jackthelad1947 on Twitter and have a my own blog.

I moved to Western Australia in 1976 while serving in the RAAF. I have two sons who married West Australian girls. I have six grandchildren and two great grand children all of whom live in Perth.

I first became interested in politics in the 1970’s after reading the Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth”, I attended Don Chipp’s Town Hall meeting in Perth. After that meeting I became a founding member of the Australian Democrats. I was membership secretary for the Democrats in Western Australia for a while.

My passion is climate change, I have completed several MOOC at Exeter, Macquarie, and Queensland universities on climate science and journalism. It was a course at Exeter that encouraged me to start my blog.

I will be reporting on the by-election currently being held in Canning for NoFibs, I am biased being a member of the Greens. I make no apologies for that as I believe climate change is our greatest challenge and the Greens are the only party that take the threat seriously.

The Candidates put forward by the three major parties are:

  • Liberal, former SAS officer Andrew Hastie
  • Labor, Perth lawyer Matt Keogh.
  • Greens, climate scientist and lecturer at Curtin University, Dr. Vanessa Rauland.

Canning is fortunate all three are very good candidates. I will be attending meetings in the electorate and reporting for NoFibs.

There is a demand for change in Canning and I believe a swing of over 10{17ac88c265afb328fa89088ab635a2a63864fdefdd7caa0964376053e8ea14b3} is possible. If the Liberals fail in Canning there will be a good chance of a leadership change.

Yes Canning could bring an end to the Abbott Prime Ministership.

I attended Matt Keogh’s launch in Mandurah last Wednesday, Tanya Plibersek was there. I was disappointed as not once did they mention climate change and the disastrous effects it will have on the Canning Electorate, especially Mandurah.

Shadow Minister for Foreign Affaits, Tanya Plibersek attended Matt Keogh's campaign launch.

Shadow Minister for Foreign Affaits, Tanya Plibersek attended Matt Keogh’s campaign launch. Photo: Candidate Facebook page

The Mandurah City Council is well aware of the climate issues we are facing and has produced an excellent E book on climate change, “Shaping Local Solutions“.

The council’s book makes it clear that Mandurah will be flooded as the seas rise, extreme heatwaves, drought and bushfires will be common unless we act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Senator Scott Ludlam, Greens candidate Dr. Vanessa Rauland, and Senator Rachel Siewert. Photo: Candidates Facebook page

Senator Scott Ludlam, Greens candidate Dr. Vanessa Rauland, and Senator Rachel Siewert. Photo: Candidates Facebook page

The Green Candidate is a climate scientist and is well aware of the issues we face it’s disappointing that Labor and Liberal barely rate climate change as an immediate threat.
greensad

The Solar Council is trying to raise climate change awareness in Mandurah and is holding a forum inviting all candidates to attend and discuss the issue I will attend and report back to NoFibs.

The Australian Solar Council to hold forum.

The Australian Solar Council to hold forum in Mandurah.