By JONATHON HOWARD
IN MANY ways the preselected Greens candidate for the state seat of Noosa, Joe Shlegeris, has done and seen it all.
He’s rubbed shoulders with the late Steve Jobs, started a successful software company in California’s Silicon Valley, worked as a venture capital investor in Sydney and as a stockbroker in Queensland. But Mr Shlegeris is about to take on his biggest challenge yet, by contending the state seat of Noosa in next year’s election.
Mr Shlegeris says he has a vision for Noosa and for Queensland that involves a green, clean and abundant future.
To say that Mr Shlegeris is underqualified would be the understatement of the year and that’s not considering his degrees from both Harvard and Stanford, but rather his wealth of knowledge in the technology and finance industries.
His resume reads more like a passage out of Bill Gates’ memoirs, but it’s his professional approach to finances that would make any Labor or Liberal National Party member nervous.
He speaks passionately about small business growth and believes his financial knowledge could be put to go use.
He said small business was being hampered by job-destroying state taxes, especially payroll tax and stamp duty, while big business extracts other concessions to ease these burdens.
By selecting a candidate with an extensive entrepreneurial and business background, the Greens are moving into new territory.
“Obviously environmental issues are critical to all aspects of life,” he said.
“Without a thriving natural world, we won’t have the resources or the economy we need.
“I think that in the past Greens candidates have been boxed in as single-issue extremists – times have changed.
“Sound environmental management goes hand-in-hand with sound economic management, with job creation, and with debt reduction.
“The tired old parties think they can sell you business as usual, more of the same. I hope people are ready to move forward.”
Mr Shlegeris says that we’re now in an era in which the best economic policies are exactly matched to the best environmental policies.
“The private sector is ready to fund massive expansion in clean electricity,” he said.
“This requires no subsidy from the state. It just requires the state to get out of the way and stop blocking access to the grid.”
Mr Shlegeris wants to free private producers of electricity and consumers of electricity to deal with each other, delivering much lower electricity costs.
Read more about Mr Shlegeris in this week’s edition of Take Ten.
