I have seen people who are gay be on the verge of suicide because of pressure from parents or the community so it\u2019s against someone\u2019s human rights to be put through that mental anguish.<\/p>\n
A. I wasn\u2019t around in 1986 [when the FBT legislation was introduced]. I was in grade 6, so I can\u2019t say what happened in those days, but Clive Palmer said at a meeting we had the other week that in the day people would have a lunch and do a lot of business deals so everything was done on the shake of a hand, there wasn\u2019t endless committee meetings. There was just a gentleman\u2019s agreement and business was done. He said there was a lot more innovation and a lot more employment because people were employed in restaurants. Based on his judgment and he said it\u2019s a good idea, so I\u2019ll support that.<\/p>\n
A. Based on what he said, the idea being that you have a town like Broken Hill, it has a lot of mines there. If 25% of the tax was allowed to be retained in Broken Hill, then Broken Hill as a community would grow because it would have more resources. The idea being that people who work in that town live in such isolated remote regions of Australia, they would have incentives to work there because they can see their community is going to grow. At the moment everything is getting ripped out of it and redistributed, and I do agree that the resources are all of Australia\u2019s, but the idea being to build communities rather than them being a ghost town.<\/p>\n
![\"Buddy](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Buddy-Rojek-profile-pic.jpg?resize=256%2C192\")
Buddy Rojek<\/p><\/div>\n
Q. One of your policies is to abolish the carbon tax, however you do not have an alternate policy to tackle climate change. <\/b><\/p>\n
A. We are not just abolishing the carbon tax. We are refunding it. I\u2019d like to see what all the other candidates say in two weeks\u2019 time at our convention.<\/p>\n
Q. Do you personally believe in climate change<\/b>?<\/p>\n
A. I\u2019ve studied environmental science. I\u2019ve got an A+. I used to pull the pegs out of the ground when developers were building housing developments. I was a young kid. I pulled the pegs out because they were killing my lizards and my frogs and butterflies. So I\u2019m more hard-core greenie than any of these Green people. Based on my understanding of science. I have been reading science books since I was three years old. I love dinosaurs. I don\u2019t think climate change is caused by carbon. I believe it is caused by other factors such as solar cycles, the continental shift, also the urban heat effect where concrete roads and bitumen roads and deforestation of farmland basically allows more energy to be absorbed by earth, and I think we need to investigate that a bit further.<\/p>\n
Q. You live in Kyneton. Why are you standing in Corangamite rather than Bendigo?<\/b><\/p>\n
A. I live in Torquay in now. I was going to go for Bendigo but it was already taken. I have history in Corangamite. I used to live here. I went to Deakin University, I\u2019ve lived in Jan Juc, I\u2019ve lived in Waurn Ponds. I worked in Geelong at Day Neilson accountants, and I still come down here. I\u2019ve got mates here. I go surfing here. I go fishing. I go to the Otway forests. It was the most natural electorate for me.<\/p>\n
Q. Are you working at the moment or have you taken leave to campaign?<\/b><\/p>\n
A. I work for myself. I buy and sell equipment. I\u2019ve got sheep, I sell sheep. I do bookkeeping and self-managed super fund administration.<\/p>\n
Q. You have received a lot of attention about this flyer that went around about your party. You seem to be happy about the attention.<\/b><\/p>\n
A. I love it. Because I\u2019ve got the media to eat of the palm of my hand. I\u2019ve set a honey trap, so to speak. This was a deliberate strategy … I control everything that I say or do based on my social media site and now the intent is to drive everyone to my Palmer United site, my Facebook site, my Twitter account, where all my views are espoused and a journalist can\u2019t misconstrue or play games.<\/p>\n
Q. Do you think the media has been fair?<\/b><\/p>\n
A. No, I\u2019m actually quite sad. I was actually crying the other week. I said to my mate I was shocked. I actually thought the media was the finder of truth. I\u2019m actually quite scared for our country that the media hasn\u2019t [done what I thought they would]\n
When I came on board I was actually quite na\u00efve. I thought, \u201cI\u2019m going to have the media ask me questions.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m a champion debater and I haven\u2019t had anything. I\u2019ve sent in so many of my policies and nothing was getting published. I was shocked. I basically came up with this strategy because one, I need volunteers and, two, I believe I\u2019m going to win so I want to party and, three, how do I get people motivated to assist me?\u00a0 Now, being an Australian male, living in this area and understanding what most of the electorate was like, I knew they were into sport. I knew girls are into netball and guys are into football, so I thought how do I get them to go. So I thought, I\u2019ll have a party and get some attractive models to mingle and make the party a bit more of a vibe and make everybody happy and have a good time. That was the intention. It\u2019s got nothing to do with sleaze. It\u2019s all about engaging people in helping and maybe it will encourage people who have never been civic-minded to be more interested in politics. So I think it is a positive.<\/p>\n
Q. Do you think implying models will go home with guests is appropriate for a politician?<\/b><\/p>\n
A. That\u2019s not my business. They\u2019re paid from 6 to 10. After that they\u2019re a free agent to do what they want.<\/p>\n
Q. But your invitation seemed to suggest that might happen.<\/b><\/p>\n
A. Well, I\u2019m not paying for it. I\u2019m not saying they\u2019re prostitutes, they\u2019re models.<\/p>\n
Q. I\u2019m not suggesting you\u2019re paying them, but you\u2019re implying that might happen. Do you think that is appropriate?<\/b><\/p>\n
A. I wrote that specifically to stop boys starting fights. It was to say, \u2018behave yourself\u2019, because I didn\u2019t want them to start a fight. It was a bit of a psychological thing. Guys, don\u2019t be idiots and don\u2019t cause trouble, because the girls \u2026 you know. It wasn\u2019t like saying you\u2019re gonna pick up. My intention was to stop violence on the night.<\/p>\n
Q. Have you heard from Clive Palmer or anyone at party headquarters about the media over the past 24 hours?<\/b><\/p>\n
A. They just said, \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019 and I basically explained what I just told you. They said, \u2018Okay, as long as you believe it\u2019s done with good intentions then we\u2019ll support you.\u2019 I\u2019ve got honest intentions for why I did it. I\u2019m not a gigolo. I wrote that line to make the boys behave because boys are boys when they drink, and I thought if I say that, they might think a little differently, so it was just a strategy I had.<\/p>\n
Q. How will you direct your preferences?<\/b><\/p>\n
A. Basically we are still deciding that, so I\u2019ve got to wait for our party meeting. I\u2019ve got some of my own personal views at the moment that I\u2019m still mulling over after meeting the other candidates tonight. If there\u2019s anything outside my own personal values, I will be pushing to have that changed. I will be sure of that. I am not a puppet. The party aligns with my values, but as soon as it starts misaligning I\u2019m going to say I\u2019m not happy about it<\/p>\n
Q. Who is a politician you admire? Australian or International, past or present.<\/b><\/p>\n
A. Well, even though Putin gets a lot of bad rap \u2026 As a Ukrainian \u2013 well, my grandmother is Ukrainian – I follow some Russian and Ukrainian news and what I read in Ukrainian and Russian is a little bit different to what is reported in the western press. So I\u2019m in two minds, but I believe Putin is a strong leader and has improved Russia\u2019s economy. People who have been in mass poverty after the Soviet Union collapsed are actually improving their lives. People back there are telling me things are going good, so I think in light of the conditions that the Soviet Union went through, I think Putin needs a little bit more attention for the positives that have come over there.<\/p>\n
Q. We\u2019ve sat here for 11 minutes and I have recorded this. Are you happy with what I have asked you and with what\u2019s been recorded? You have no problems with me publishing something?<\/b><\/p>\n
A. I\u2019m happy. You can publish it, as long as you\u2019re fair. I\u2019m a good person. I\u2019m not this monster people are saying. I did it with a clear strategy to engage the civic-mindedness of my electorate. I\u2019ve basically been sleeping in my car to live as a homeless person to test the homeless services in this electorate. I\u2019m satisfied with it based on going into town, meeting the people who hang out in disability services area. The reports they\u2019ve told me, so I\u2019m satisfied with that. I\u2019m tired. I\u2019m doing it all on my own. I\u2019m in credit card debt. I\u2019m basically doing it for Australia and hoping that Twitter and Facebook forums will allow people to start engaging with me.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never used Twitter before but I\u2019m amazed at how good it is as an information source. I can choose who feeds me information. I think Twitter has a bright future, and I think it\u2019s had a reputation as what Kim Kardashian tweets about. But I think it can be an intellectual tool and a civic engagement tool and I think Twitter is the future.<\/p>\n
Buddy and I chatted informally for a little while, and then he said he wanted to add something to our interview. He asked me to record the following:<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019m actually quite concerned as a newcomer to politics about how agendas are driven by quite intelligent but manipulative people, and as a politician you feel like you have to go with the agenda that they push. I\u2019ve met so many ordinary Australians who give me a story and I\u2019m starting to realise that the overall issues coming out are not being portrayed in the media, and my insight is that this is why politics is being turned off by the average Australians. They\u2019re not seeing the issues that they care about the most, they\u2019re only seeing the issues that certain strong minorities care about and I think that\u2019s a travesty. People who have got strong wills need to respect democracy by not being so forceful with their views. Our journalists and politicians are being, not herded or bullied, but they feel like they can\u2019t speak out about it and as a result there\u2019s bad policy, so that\u2019s my insight. I think we need to look into that further.<\/p>\n
More Corangamite reports here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Michelle Primmer August 15, 2013 Buddy Rojek arrived in Corangamite with quite a splash. The novice politician, running for the Palmer United Party, made front-page news in the Geelong Advertiser on August 13 after he put out a flyer seeking volunteers to hand out how-to-vote cards and promising a \u201crocking\u201d election-night party featuring hot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,972,3546,66,585,973],"tags":[1141,977,2602,1143,2637,1140,1142],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Buddy1.jpg?fit=933%2C525&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-27H","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57032,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8165\/revisions\/57032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"buddy2\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/buddy2.jpg?resize=765%2C648\")
<\/b><\/p>\n![\"buddyrojek_full_190gmbs-190gmg6\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/buddyrojek_full_190gmbs-190gmg6.jpg?resize=400%2C534\")
<\/p>\n