MARK M ALDRIDGE "Community Advocate" SA - GRANTING RAMSAY'S WISHES a.userlink { color: #253741; } a.userlink:visited { color: #6a818c; } a.userlink:hover { color: #005e85; } font[size="1"] { font-size:10px; } font[size="2"] { font-size:13px; } font[size="3"] { font-size:16px; } font[size="4"] { font-size:18px; } font[size="5"] { font-size:24px; } font[size="6"] { font-size:32px; } font[size="7"] { font-size:48px; } .GuestBookMessage { font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 13px; } .GuestBookMessageRow { font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 12px; } .GuestBookHeader { font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: 12px; } .div-text-footer-color { color:#000000; } .div-text-footer-container a, .div-text-footer-container a:visited, .div-text-footer-container a:hover { color:#000000; } SA's Better candidate for Ramsay, Mark Aldridge Independent Will you be voting for Ramsay’s best candidate?The fine People of Salisbury (Ramsay Electorate) have expressed that, the main issues concerning them are the following.1. Electricity prices2. Jobs3. Health4. Cost of living5. Reliability of electricity supply6. Education fundingSo, you are right to ask what my position on these important topics are, but I will remind you I am not a representing a political party, if elected, I will be Representing You!It is highly probable Labor will be re-elected to govern, I say this because I am privy to the back room deals, and as we all know, those that write electoral law, have the most to gain from structural biases, which sadly empowers them, rather than us.Which ever party forms government, their promises will remain the same. My job as your voice in parliament, will be to demand they keep their promises, while I lobby for improved services and investment for the Salisbury area.Every time they need my vote, I will ensure it will cost them with increased investment for our community.Unlike the Party candidates I am NOT a representative of a political Party, I will solely be representing you, somewhat comparable to the old slogan “Keeping the Bastards honest”The issue of Reliable and affordable power, cost of living, jobs, health and education, are not the only issues worthy of open and honest debate, but I will cover briefly in this post.The power issue is one for which I am well educated and capable, it relates to the simple need to ensure affordable base load power is safeguarded, before we throw too much reliance into much overdue renewable sources. When we flick the switch, we need the power supply to be available and affordable.I have argued for many years, on the need for increased power storage, before renewable energy could become capable of powering a modern economy like ours. We are now on that path, but until we get it right, we need to ensure affordable and reliable base load power is maintained.POWER; Our States Major power generation is in ruin, so we need urgent investment in upgrades to ensure a reliable and affordable source is on tap 24/7, while we work to stabilise renewables to power our children’s future.This will mean we have to replace the boilers at Pelican point immediately, and maintain old facilities as back up.One of the other issues contributing to higher costs, is the fact the government privatised and or sold of so many of our strategic assets, which has also sadly increased supply costs to we, the end user.For this and many other reasons, I am opposed to the sale of any of our strategic assets, which I believe includes all; Power generation, water rights, farms, ports and our mineral riches.HEALTH; When it comes to hospitals, most think we are short of beds. A quick tour of our hospitals will prove that wrong, empty wards, empty beds, and the reason they are empty, is we do not have enough staff.We have dropped from 17 serviceable beds per thousand when I grew up to under 2, this same drop in hospital services, is mimicked throughout our health care services, from disability and mental health funding, to elective surgery waiting lists.I will continue to lobby for more staff, more training and better conditions to keep our best workers employed here.JOBS: Both of the major parties are offering you billions in infrastructure promises, I would do the same if I were a party, these projects create jobs, lots of them. What we need, is to ensure those jobs employ South Australian workers.I have been involved with exposes for years, that have exposed overseas companies and foreign workers being the bread winners on near all recent local infrastructure projects. I will lobby to change that and expose the truth every time our workers are ignored to fill any jobs that are created here.COST OF LIVING; is a more complex issue, not something I can keep short and sweet. I have set up all your local Markets (Farm Direct community markets) and fought to keep them open. They create jobs, help to keep us eating healthy and offer regular savings of around 40% on your food bills."Unlike the current political agenda, my markets only sell fine Australian grown or produced product."Affordable base load power will reduce household power bills, so from here it will be my job to lobby on your behalf, to attract improved services across the board to continue to lower your household expenses.I will support the introduction of battery backed up solar power, an Idea I started lobbying for over a decade ago. I will continue to work on the lowering your cost of living, while I seek to cap local council rates and reduce the application of levies.EDUCATION; I will continue to lobby in an educated manner to remind the government of the rewards, investment in our children’s education accomplish.As with all services, the problem is investment in staff, training and the higher cost of outsourcing services. Every time the Government outsource services, we see a rise in those costs.As the cost of living pressures rise, with that we lose our young professionals interstate and overseas, we need to reverse that trend immediately, which means we need to change how we have been voting.