Gold Coast accountant and mother of four Sandy Roach is a champion for Australian small businesses and as One Nation’s candidate in the Fadden by-election she will advocate strong policies to support this critical pillar of the national economy.

“I’ve been working with small businesses for most of my professional life as an accountant – they are the backbone of our economy, providing about half of Australia’s jobs, and they have done it especially tough these past few years,” Sandy said.

“Many were already struggling before the COVID-19 pandemic, and many are struggling in this recovery period with worker shortages, the cost of living driving customers away, and escalating youth crime. They need much better support from the government, which for the most part should just get out of their way and let small businesses do what they do best – make money and provide jobs in their community.”

A native of the Gold Coast, Sandy is a woman of strong principles. For more than 20 years she has worked in the area as an accountant for a range of local businesses and watched her community transform. She’s been active at her local soccer club and is a dedicated member of her church.

“The Gold Coast has been an Australian success story and I want to make sure this continues. I’m putting my hand up as the One Nation candidate because I am very concerned that our community and our nation seem to be going backward and this coming generation is going to be the first in Australian history that could be worse off than the generation before it.”

Sandy will push the government to adopt policies to fix the national housing and rental crisis.

“This is primarily a supply and demand problem – too little supply and too high demand, made so much worse by Labor bringing in 715,000 migrants this year and the next. We’ll ban foreign ownership of residential property to increase supply and lower immigration to reduce demand, because this is just common sense. Most Australians don’t want a big Australia.”

Sandy hears from many Gold Coast locals that the Liberals take Fadden for granted as “their” seat.

“Both major parties have been failing this community and Australia for years. They should not be able to take any seat for granted, and I won’t let that happen. The Liberals have been lazy in Fadden, while Labor has effectively abandoned our community to runaway inflation, high interest rates and unprecedented housing stress while prioritising record immigration and the racist and divisive voice to Parliament. Fadden does not belong to the major parties. It belongs to the voters.”

Sandy considers that religious discrimination legislation is unfinished business for the Parliament. Sandy’s work with her church community has focused on fighting the scourge of human trafficking in south-east Asia.

“The Coalition abandoned its legislation and Labor shows very little interest in protecting Australians of faith from discrimination. Many people of faith feel silenced and disenfranchised, unable to bring the perspectives of their belief to debates in the public sphere. Australia should not be afraid of faith-based views – we are a democracy where rights like freedom of religion should be of paramount importance.

“Fundamental individual rights like this came under systematic attack by Australian governments and media outlets during the pandemic. People of faith could not gather while crowds were allowed to go shopping. It wasn’t remotely fair or consistent. I am fully backing Pauline Hanson’s demand for a Royal Commission into the management of the pandemic by all Australian governments.

“I’m also completely supporting Pauline’s fight for an independent Australian energy policy which prioritises affordability and reliability. Large-scale penetration of renewables in Australia has had no affect at all on the global climate – the only real affect it’s had is to triple our energy bills the past 20 years, and create energy shortages. Labor and the Greens’ disastrous climate ideology is directly contributing to the rising cost of living, and preventing important nation-building investments in long-term Australian prosperity like dams.

“Pauline Hanson and One Nation put Australia and Australians first. With the support of Fadden voters, I will put our community first. This by-election is an important opportunity to send a message to the major parties that they cannot keep running this great nation into the ground. I will always fight for this community.”