Perth Voice Interactive

Tim Clifford is an ex-Army reservist and worked 10 years as a FIFO on the mines. Not your typical Greens candidate, then.

Raised with three sisters by a mum who juggled two part-time jobs while training at Tafe, the 31-year-old is furious with Labor for cutting parenting payments to 84,000 sole parents, the vast majority of them women, and transferring them to Newstart.

He says a cut like that when he was growing up would have prevented his mum from furthering her education and kept her trapped in low-paid, transient jobs.

“It means a cut of $60-120 per week from an already over-stretched household budget, which I think is completely unacceptable,” he says.

“It was the difference between a single parent being able to retrain or plan for a future, instead of treading water.

“Politicians have to differentiate between taking away handouts, and taking away opportunities.”

Clifford is running in Stirling which, barring a Mayan-style end-of-the-world disaster, will stay in the hands of Liberal frontbencher Michael Keenan on September 7. Having abandoned the “disorientating” FIFO lifestyle in 2010, Clifford is a public servant in the WA attorney-general’s department and also studies politics, economics and journalism at ECU.

He has quickly established himself within the local Greens, running for the party in the state seat of Mt Lawley back in March.

Clifford wants more high-density, affordable housing built on the swathes of empty land that run along major roads and railways.

“The Stirling local government area could yield anywhere between 23,111 to 61,629 diverse and affordable dwellings,” he says.

“I believe this initiative will help drive the cost of living down and promote a more sustainable, vibrant and connected community within the Stirling electorate.”

The Greens were trounced at the state election—they now only hold two state upper house seats—but Clifford is confident things are on the upswing.

“I think we will do well at this election—refugees, climate change and sustainable living are  all high on the agenda,” he says.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK