The party’s New England candidate, Peter Whelan, said those principles could be found in every Liberal Democrat policy.

“All our policies are consistent and based on classic liberal philosophy,” Mr Whelan said.

“Other parties aren’t consistent, they chop and change depending on what the polling is and what the politically correct fashion of the day is – we love to fight political correctness.” 

Mr Whelan is based in the semi-rural Sydney suburb of Glenorie and said he was running in New England to “give people a choice”.

“The feedback we’re getting from locals up there is people aren’t impressed with Barnaby Joyce,” he said.

The Liberal Democratic Party is known for its strong stance on the right to own guns. 

Mr Whelan, who’s also the president of the NSW Shooters Union, said it was none of the government’s business how many guns a person owns.

“Many are disappointed that Nationals caved in on Howard’s gun-crushing program,” he said.

“It cost approximately $100 million per annum to run the flawed firearms registry – money that should be spent on hospitals and mental health programs.

“Plus all the paperwork farmers, hunters and target shooters have to go through, when we are the least likely to carry out a crime with our guns.

“That is just one of the reasons I’m standing against Joyce.”

Education

THE Liberal Democrats believe education should have nothing to do with the federal government.

“It should be centred around families and localised, rather than being policy-driven from Canberra,” Mr Whelan said.

While he agrees the Gonski funding should be needs-based, he said “throwing money at a problem often makes it worse”.

The party wants education to be funded by a school voucher system, which would promote competition between schools and encourage parental choice.

“Parents are provided with a voucher and they can then decide how and where their children are educated,” Mr Whelan said. “It gives the choice back to the taxpayer.”

The market-based approach would create an incentive for schools to perform, improve and change, and also reward better teachers.

The Liberal Democrats also support the deregulation of universities and TAFE to increase competition.

Renewable energy and coal mines

LAND owners should have the right to decide what happens on their land – and below it.

“We’ve got strong policies around the rights of land owners, and we’ve gained a lot of support for them,” Mr Whelan said.

“The wealth of Australia has been built on cheap energy – in other words, coal.”

The government should act as a “regulatory and monitoring body”, to establish mining standards and ensure there are no effects on aquifers or surrounding properties, he said.

“The problem with big government is those standards aren’t always clear,” Mr Whelan said.

“You’ve often got conflicting departments with conflicting interests, and they have conflicting interpretations of the rules. That comes back to our policy for small government.”

While Australia has been built on coal, the Liberal Democrats see the country’s energy future as a mixture of fossil fuels, renewable energy and nuclear power.

“It should be up to the market to choose the exact nature of that mix,” Mr Whelan said.

“The government has proven it’s not very good at picking winners.”

Mr Whelan, a former engineer, has worked in nuclear plants around the world.

“Nuclear is the way Australia should be going,” he said.

“It’s proven to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. Most developed countries, and many lesser-developed countries, have active nuclear energy programs.”

Jobs and Infrastructure 

“ONLY private industry and private employers create jobs.”

To encourage growth in the private sector, the Liberal Democrats advocate for a flat tax of 20 per cent, with up to $40,000 tax free.

“That keeps more money in the hands of those who have earned it, and that goes for individuals, businesses and companies,” Mr Whelan said.

The party would also do away with the minimum wage, which would encourage businesses to take on people “deemed unemployable”.

“This gives employees the chance to employ someone above the dole but below the minimum wage,” Mr Whalen said.

“It takes people off the unemployed list and stops the drain on the taxpayers.”

Rather than the government dictating what infrastructure the country needs, projects should be community driven and privately funded, where possible.

“What we’ve seen in the past is infrastructure projects are usually just vote buying and pork barrelling,” Mr Whelan.

“That’s the danger of big government deciding what the key infrastructure projects are. They are just looking at it from a vote-buying point of view.”

Infrastructure in Australia costs “five to six times” more than it does in similar developed countries.

“Government is the problem here – there are 140 inter-governmental agreements between various arms of government,” Mr Whelan said.

“To get anything done locally, there is such a complex network of government departments, which are sometimes competing with each other. It’s difficult to navigate, costly and time consuming.

“Smaller government means fewer civil servants, many of which are not producing anything – they’re just shuffling paper and money.”