![Greens candidate for Goulburn Gregory Olsen at his Bundanoon home. Photo by Sally Foy. Greens candidate for Goulburn Gregory Olsen at his Bundanoon home. Photo by Sally Foy.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/190291005/43cd1282-fd00-48cb-a8b3-cd9aec9aba0a.jpeg/r654_314_3700_2939_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Retired guitar teacher and Bundanoon resident, Gregory Olsen, is standing as the Greens candidate for Goulburn in the NSW election.
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He says social equity and justice is central to his philosophy on life, "and you can chuck the environment in there as well".
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Mr Olsen said the Goulburn electorate had "three very distinct areas" to tackle.
"The big one is having [Wingecarribee] Council representation," he said.
"I'm also going to put up to [the Greens Party] the Singapore model of home ownership and renting, whereby people below a certain income, or at a certain stage in their life, can enroll in a government housing scheme."
According to Mr Olsen the "commodification of housing" is a problem in Australia.
"It's all about capital gains, which is really the shifting of money from the poor to the rich by capital gains tax concessions," he said.
"What I want to make sure, personally, is that we have equity between everybody, so we don't have one per cent that owns 80 per cent of the world."
However, Mr Olsen is not a person "who supports a revolution".
"To me democracy is the key, and we don't have democracy at the moment in our council," he said.
"We have autocracy, which is the State Government wanting to push their agenda onto a council which wasn't doing what they wanted it to do."
Mr Olsen supports changing NSW legislation to return a council to Wingecarribee this year [2023].
He said the NSW Government set a precedent for this during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it changed its legislation "just like that".
Since then, Wingecarribee has lost "over 300 years of experienced staff", according to Mr Olsen.
"Morale is low, and there's over 100 job vacancies now," he said.
Of sacked council members returning at the next election, Mr Olsen said it was their "right".
"I don't reject anyone who wants to stand," he said.
"It's up to the community."
Mr Olsen said Goulburn had a "very silent" problem of affordable housing and homelessness.
"People complain about this idea of having lower socio economic groups; unemployed people; near them," he said.
"How to solve the problem is beyond me. It has to be a community-owned problem and solution, which is funded sufficiently by the relevant governments.
"We [must] all get together as well-meaning people to solve the issue and create the solution," Mr Olsen said.
When pressed to drill down on what was needed locally, Mr Olsen said he would run a campaign to get people on side.
"And meet people's concerns head on," he said.
"We need to accept these people; we need to accept the people who are on the fringes, not the upper fringe but the lower fringe of society."
He also says Wakefield Park "should go ahead".
"I've got an electric car; I've never been a fan of motor racing but what [Wakefield Park] provides to the community is driver-training," Mr Olsen said.
"It's got a fantastic service for disabled people to experience driving. It's a really good facility and I've got nothing against it. We've got to get it back up and running.
"What I'm wanting is changes across Australia, to bring about the transition to renewable energy; transition to electric buses; electric trains; let's get fossil fuels out of it," he said.
Mr Olsen believes in better support for rural and regional healthcare. He said GPs were not being encouraged "because of the conditions and the pay".
"We've got to find ways of encouraging more GPs, and get them out into rural areas," Mr Olsen said.
He also said that education was "absolutely necessary".
"The Greens want to forgive all HECS debts. Gone," Mr Olsen said.
"Let's boost teachers pay by at least 14 per cent. The ceiling has got to go away. Free education at all levels."
It's Mr Olsen's belief that the Federal Government cannot run out of money.
"It cannot go bankrupt," Mr Olsen said.
"The Federal Government can fund whatever it likes and make TAFE free; make university education free. It's just another political decision."
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