Family First candidate Geoff Dethlefs By Catherine Watson
YOU can credit Anthony Albanese with persuading Geoff Dethlefs to stand. “That man's got to go and we've got to have somebody with some sense,” he says.
The Family First candidate for Monash is riled about a few things the Labor Party’s done but top of the list is the drive for renewable energy.
“They're chasing a mad dream when God gave us this beautiful coal to provide power cheaply. They want to get it from renewables which don't give it to us when we want it and the battery technology hasn't been developed.
“So it's just wasteful and it's our tax payer money that's being used and a trillion dollars of debt in the future. I’m fed up with the ineptitude of the Labor government to solve any problems with our cost of living crisis.”
YOU can credit Anthony Albanese with persuading Geoff Dethlefs to stand. “That man's got to go and we've got to have somebody with some sense,” he says.
The Family First candidate for Monash is riled about a few things the Labor Party’s done but top of the list is the drive for renewable energy.
“They're chasing a mad dream when God gave us this beautiful coal to provide power cheaply. They want to get it from renewables which don't give it to us when we want it and the battery technology hasn't been developed.
“So it's just wasteful and it's our tax payer money that's being used and a trillion dollars of debt in the future. I’m fed up with the ineptitude of the Labor government to solve any problems with our cost of living crisis.”
Does he think the Coalition will do better?
“I'm closer to the other side but the left wing of the Liberals leaves a lot to be desired because they’re also interested in chasing this mad dream. They call themselves a broad church. Well, they've just gotten too broad and some of them probably should be joining the Labor Party.”
Dethlefs has lived in Drouin for almost 20 years. He was a school teacher for 45 years including 22 years as principal and 17 years in Christian schools. For the past eight years, he’s been pastor of the Baptist Church in Rokeby, a small town north of Warragul. “A younger man with a family has taken that over, so I'm delighted about that.”
He joined Family First a couple of years ago – the first time he’s ever belonged to a political party. He was at a party meeting in Melbourne when they said they needed people to stand in lower house seats.
“I asked if they were prepared to have an older guy and they said yes. I happen to be the oldest of all the family first people in Victoria although there are a couple of 78s in there as well.”
At the ripe age of 81, he knows people may be wary, especially given the very public fading of former US president Joe Biden, but Dethlefs comes from good stock. “I have a grandmother who lived to be 100, a grandfather who lived to be 97, an aunt who lived to be 99 and an uncle who's turning 100 in July.”
So he’s not worried that he won’t be able to complete his term if he’s elected to Parliament, and perhaps impart a little wisdom and common sense along the way.
More realistically, he hopes there might be five or six thousand people in the electorate who vote for him.
“That’s significant and helpful. And if Russell Broadbent gets a fair few of those as a second preference, I hope he gets in rather than the Liberal lady who's one of those somewhat woke Liberal people. I think Russell did a pretty good job and I'd prefer to see him back in there. Of course he would end up doing some sort of deal with the Liberals if they were to form government, I'm sure.”
He’s got a couple of other issues. He’d like to wind back the Sex Discrimination Act. “It refuses to define a woman and that’s just ridiculous. Women are eminently definable and they're not men. I’m very concerned that pretend women who actually have masculine bodies are allowed into women's spaces. That must cease to be.”
His third issue is government interference in independent Christian schools. “The idea that the Labor government has been flirting with is that teachers in Christian schools should be anybody and not specifically Christians, to share their beliefs and their lifestyle and their love of the Bible and things like that with their students is just anathema. That must not be."
Family first policies: https://www.familyfirstparty.org.au/policies
“I'm closer to the other side but the left wing of the Liberals leaves a lot to be desired because they’re also interested in chasing this mad dream. They call themselves a broad church. Well, they've just gotten too broad and some of them probably should be joining the Labor Party.”
Dethlefs has lived in Drouin for almost 20 years. He was a school teacher for 45 years including 22 years as principal and 17 years in Christian schools. For the past eight years, he’s been pastor of the Baptist Church in Rokeby, a small town north of Warragul. “A younger man with a family has taken that over, so I'm delighted about that.”
He joined Family First a couple of years ago – the first time he’s ever belonged to a political party. He was at a party meeting in Melbourne when they said they needed people to stand in lower house seats.
“I asked if they were prepared to have an older guy and they said yes. I happen to be the oldest of all the family first people in Victoria although there are a couple of 78s in there as well.”
At the ripe age of 81, he knows people may be wary, especially given the very public fading of former US president Joe Biden, but Dethlefs comes from good stock. “I have a grandmother who lived to be 100, a grandfather who lived to be 97, an aunt who lived to be 99 and an uncle who's turning 100 in July.”
So he’s not worried that he won’t be able to complete his term if he’s elected to Parliament, and perhaps impart a little wisdom and common sense along the way.
More realistically, he hopes there might be five or six thousand people in the electorate who vote for him.
“That’s significant and helpful. And if Russell Broadbent gets a fair few of those as a second preference, I hope he gets in rather than the Liberal lady who's one of those somewhat woke Liberal people. I think Russell did a pretty good job and I'd prefer to see him back in there. Of course he would end up doing some sort of deal with the Liberals if they were to form government, I'm sure.”
He’s got a couple of other issues. He’d like to wind back the Sex Discrimination Act. “It refuses to define a woman and that’s just ridiculous. Women are eminently definable and they're not men. I’m very concerned that pretend women who actually have masculine bodies are allowed into women's spaces. That must cease to be.”
His third issue is government interference in independent Christian schools. “The idea that the Labor government has been flirting with is that teachers in Christian schools should be anybody and not specifically Christians, to share their beliefs and their lifestyle and their love of the Bible and things like that with their students is just anathema. That must not be."
Family first policies: https://www.familyfirstparty.org.au/policies