Because I’m like you.
I firmly believe that most people who identify with political parties do so from the genuine virtue they possess. They have life experiences that have led them to want to do good, like solving poverty, job equality, self-expression, environmental stewardship, personal independence, and care for the vulnerable to mention a few. People are virtuous.
Parties on the other hand are machines run by bosses. Virtue is not their strength if it is present in their gears at all. Their focus is on money and power – real estate, marshal matters (arms, control, crime, policing, war), and personal payouts. I’m not like a party politician, yours or anyone else’s. Parties divide the voters and then carve up the spoils to feed into their respective machines.
People concerned about social equity go into one machine, those concerned about economic liberty into another machine, and those concerned about environment into the last party machine. Once there, we are owned by them. Even after we realise that, we are too embarrassed to admit it, so we just play along knowing they are all the same.
They do so with the same slogans, election after election, knowing that their job isn’t to succeed with the promise, it’s just to make the promise. Promises are hypnotic. They take advantage of the good that is inherent in people. Even the roughest amongst us has virtue, and parties hook into that and reel us in.
How many decades have the parties said, we’re going to end poverty, reduce taxes, create jobs, fight corruption, or boost the economy. Every election season by my count. For the millions of times such promises have been made, any progress is superficial, and in the end, we feel alone, cynical, and a bit fearful.
I’m not gonna spend my life being a color.
Michael Jackson
I’m not a machine. I have real life experiences, like you. I’ve been exploited, like you. I have hopes, like you. And now I say, enough is enough with treating us like fuel for their machines, and I’m stepping up to take virtue into the halls that represent us, which I also hope is like you.
I know poverty firsthand. I lived my childhood and adolescence in poverty and some domestic violence. It’s not a theory for me. I know what it’s like to go to work as a child of 10 to get money for treats, and to wash dishes in the school cafeteria in exchange for a lunch meal.
I know discrimination firsthand. I felt my mother’s pain of being discriminated for her darker Arab skin. As a child I evolved as a neglected nerd and took the hurtful jibs, the jokes, and exclusions from peers.
I also know what it is to be encouraged by good teachers to not be a victim and to use everything in one’s toolkit of life to make something positive of oneself and the world around them. I know how to see adversity as just the other side of the hand of opportunity.
I know what it is to work 12-hour days and save while others are spending. At 18, with no silver spoon in my mouth and a few dollar bills in my pocket, I started on the path to a better life for me, and for my family to be. When I had spare money, I bought tools, not drinks and smokes, to leverage my productivity. When more work was on offer I was happy to accept it, even when the money offered was low. What I knew was more important than gaining money, was gaining real-world experience. Even when I was a humble cleaner, I was learning.
Over time, this work-ethic opened doors to opportunities that valued such character and virtue. This eventually led me to a startup company called Computerland, where at 23 years old I found myself in Silicon Valley at the start of the personal computer revolution – PCs.
A few years later, I left the security and certainty of my country of birth and took the path of millions of people before me and became an immigrant. My wife and I arrived in our new country just a few days before my 27th birthday.
In the subsequent 42 years after Computerland, I was industrious and became prosperous. I brought Microsoft to Australia as its exclusive distributor. I developed a smart modem and produced it locally. And I brought ‘desktop publishing’ to Australia too, as the exclusive distributor of PageMaker and Adobe products. In the home stretch of my career, I developed the Microcat electronic parts selling system, which is use every day by hundreds of thousands of automotive personnel in 160 countries around the world. It was a breakthrough product that brought huge benefits of productivity and efficiency to vehicle dealerships. It also had a significant environmental impact by eliminating the logging of thousands of trees per year that were consumed in the production of the paper catalogue sets that Microcat replaced. I know what it is to save the environment while increasing work opportunities and economic activity at the same time. Ecology isn’t something I just heard about on a Zoom call.
For all my success, I haven’t forgotten the hard life lessons I’ve shared with you. I’m not just sympathetic – I’ve been there. These experiences have taught me resilience, resourcefulness, and a commitment to real improvement — qualities that I’ll bring to the council to represent you.
If elected, I’d champion through Council some specific goals for residents, and support us working with Federal and State governments where necessary to achieve them. These aims include:
- Rollback at least half of the 64% special rate increase
- Reduce Council debt and eliminate financial waste and vanity projects
- Increase Council work on its core obligations
- Eliminate expenditures to make it appear the bureaucracy is listening to the residents, such as the useless $100k so-called ‘Place Plans’.
- Fully rollback the recent 33% councillor pay and superannuation rises.
Now days, I’m as sharp as ever, like you. I’m committed to having a great community, like you. And, I’ve had it with politicians using us, like you.
The reason why you would elect me is to stop Council’s wasteful spending, get its economics in order, improve its performance, and to make it operate within the means of ratepayers’ and renters’ ability to pay. With your support of me and the team I will recommend, we can achieve this. This is not a cynical slogan or another failed party promise. It’s the real deal.
We can live a better life when we’re not being played.
In the privacy of the voting booth, you have the power to remove the players.
Vote 1 Below-the-Line – Richard Graham
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