News
18 March, 2025
New party on the block
THE Blair electorate is one of several welcoming candidates from the newly established Gerard Rennick - People First Party (PFP) in the upcoming election, with lawyer Kathryn Chadwick stepping up to represent Blair.
The PFP is just over six months old, having been founded by Queensland senator Gerard Rennick in August 2024.
Some of the PFP’s key policies include:
• Abolishing renewable subsidies.
• Removing all funding and references to climate change.
• Raising the tax-free threshold from $18,200 to $40,000.
• Reducing immigration to less than 100,000 per year.
• Making contributions to superannuation voluntary, allowing workers to take their superannuation as wages.
• Calling for childcare subsidy payments to go directly to parents (subject to welfare checks).
• Reinstating a public bank.
• Introducing whistleblower protections.
• Removing all funding and references to Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country.
Ms Chadwick said one of the issues she would address in the Blair electorate, especially in Kilcoy, would be trying to abolish renewable energy subsidies, which she called “a fallacy.”
This comes as Kilcoy and surrounding residents have been opposing a development application put through to Somerset Council to build a battery energy storage system in Hazeldean.
“This type of construction they’re proposing here and in other areas of the Blair electorate has too great a risk to human life and to the environment, which far outweighs any benefit these systems may have,” she said.
“We know our party’s not going to win government, but if we had someone in Canberra from the federal level, we can be a voice in the new government and advocate for people and these communities and keep the pressure on those who are making decisions, so these developments can’t see the light of day.”
According to Ms Chadwick, one of the ways the PFP sets itself apart from the LNP is its desire to remove Australia from the Paris Agreement.
“They can push coal and nuclear energy all they like, but if they are not going to get out of the agreement, association.
“There’s a lot of angst about not being able to access public land because of native title issues or Indigenous groups who are able to convince the government they have some sort of connection to that land, therefore shutting everyone else out from being able to access that,” she said.
“Everyone should be able to have the right to access public land and enjoy it.”
Ms Chadwick has worked as a lawyer for over seven years, including in criminal defence and in the Veterans Legal Service.
Prior to her legal career, Ms Chadwick worked as a nurse for eight years, both in public and private hospitals, as well as a Nursing Officer with the Royal Australian Army.
Having lived most of her life in and around the Blair electorate, she was born in Ipswich and raised on her family farm in Coleyville, at the foothills of Mount Walker.
Ms Chadwick said she agreed to become a candidate for the region because she “is deeply concerned about the way this country is heading.”
“I love my country. We were a great country and stood apart from many other countries in the world for so long,” she said.
“I’m very concerned about the future of my children, so I want to be able to give them the opportunities my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents were given.
“I’m also a very big advocate for veterans and veteran welfare, so my primary focus is to keep pushing for equality, respect, and recognition for the veterans of this country.
“I’m doing this because I have a genuine interest in seeing this country turn itself around and be the country it always was.”
For more information on Ms Chadwick and the PFP, visit https://peoplefirstparty.au/
