FAMILY First candidate for Indi and Beechworth resident Michael White is not new to politics, having campaigned for the party at a state level for Northern Victoria. It is the first time Mr White has contested Indi and he nominated because he wanted to stand up for Family First's values. "What Family First talks about correlates with my own personal values," he said. "People who vote for Family First are those looking for an alternative on the conservative side of politics. "Our society has Christian values and we're prepared to take those and put them in public policy. "We look at the basic unit of our society, the family, and make sure we have public policy which supports that. "It's like stepping back and looking at what are the fundamentals of our society and what should we defend rather be engrossed in promoting a particular interest or idea, for example workers rights or the environment, which other parties tend to do. "This is not a bad thing, but we tend to take a bigger picture view which is why I wanted to run as a candidate." Mr White said Family First's focus at this election is for sensible policies on energy to ensure prices don't rise for struggling Australian families. "We have concerns about government going too fast down the renewables track," he said. "We're interested in making sure we have a reliable and affordable power system rather than the current ideology which says we have to go 100 per cent renewables." Given the chance he would convert the money spent on "bloated bureaucracy" into faster road repairs, shorter casualty wait times, and more frequent trains on the North East line. Mr White said he also wants better care for children who aren’t born with the benefit of a stable family. He has experienced first hand how kids can thrive when they have a permanent home and the damage done when they don’t get that soon enough.
