1.    When and why did you decide to become a politician?
I’ve been interested in politics for as long as I can remember. Being exposed to a whole range of ideas at uni helped me to clarify my own political position, which is that we need to move away from a society run by greed, money and profit towards one where people genuinely look after one another.

2.    What do you think are the issues that matter to young people?
Education, workplace and healthcare issues all affect young people directly. Climate change is another big one, because today’s younger people may see drastic effects from this in their lifetime.

3.    How do you plan to address these issues?
We need to restore free education for everyone, and abolish the WorkChoices laws so people can feel confident about getting a job with decent pay and conditions and not having a huge debt hanging over their heads. We need to properly fund public health services rather than using public money to prop up the private health insurance industry. We need to ratify the Kyoto protocol and concentrate on developing renewable energy sources, not nuclear power and not “clean” coal.

4.    How do you engage with young people to find out what issues matter to them?
I’ve been hitting every election-related internet site I can find – MySpace, Facebook, iVote and others. I’m also taking to the streets to speak to people directly.

5.    What did you care about when you were a young voter?
Much the same as now, civil liberties, issues affecting students, the environment and so forth.

6.    What is your opinion of young people in Australia?
In spite of what a lot of people say, I find young people to be highly passionate and committed to building a better world. Unfortunately people often get more cynical as they get older.

7.    How do you think our political system can better engage with younger voters?
Lower the voting age to 16, and change that stupid law that enrolments have to close as soon as the election is called.

8.    What are the key long-term challenges facing Australia?
Stopping human-made climate change, restoring a sense of fairness, and providing for an ageing population by providing services rather than going down the “user pays” pathway.

9.    If you could change one thing about Australia what would it be?
There are so many things. Perhaps everything I’ve mentioned above, plus stop locking up asylum seekers. These people have done it really tough, and they get punished for it.

10.    Describe a time when your political opinion was challenged or changed.
I was doing medical work in Sri Lanka in 2001, working in the northern part of the country where the civil war was (and still is) taking place. We worked in a run-down village hospital and saw a number of children and babies die, including a three-day-old baby boy whom we had to drive to another hospital an hour away just to get an X-ray. He died while we were waiting for the X-ray film to be printed and we couldn’t resuscitate him. I was infuriated that a country’s leaders could spend so much money fighting for their “national sovereignty” while their own children died from lack of care. At that time I had been political inactive for a while, but that experience spurred me back into action.

11.    What’s your favourite thing about your electorate?
This electorate stretches from the Gold Coast tourist strip right up to the hinterland. There’s always so much going on here, and I love being near the beach.

12.    What do you do to relax?
I like to play music whenever I can. I have a rock band that’s in the process of reforming, and recently I’ve been teaching myself to play the piano.