Member for Calare Andrew Gee backed a trial to drug test welfare recipients, alter the cost of different university degrees, as well as putting some welfare payments onto restricted debit cards, according to a parliamentary record collated by the website They Vote For You.
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Mr Gee is standing as the Nationals candidate for the seat of Calare again at next Saturday's federal election. His parliamentary record since he was elected to the House of Representatives in July 2016 has been detailed on the Open Australia Foundation's site based on official parliamentary Hansard records.
According to the site, Mr Gee voted for combining the family circuit court and family court of Australia, streamlining environmental approval powers, and banning mobile phones, sim cards and internet capable devices, as well as illegal drugs, in immigration detention facilities particularly among people involved in criminal activity, such as gangs.
Not all people in immigration detention would lose their phones. It said he also voted against a fast transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Although the cost of humanities degrees increased as part of a funding restructure for universities, the cost for most health fields, education, maths and other areas decreased for students.
According to the site, Mr Gee was one of the most regular attendees in parliament with a 96 per cent attendance rate since he was elected.
The Coalition opposes the site and Mr Gee said he believed it presented a "false and misleading record of MP voting records".
"It doesn't provide a fair and correct record of what the votes were for, and is just more political spin," he said.
Although it said he votes on party lines, Mr Gee said he recently put his job as a Cabinet Minister on the line and threatened to resign because he was told there wasn't money in the budget to address the backlog of veterans compensation claims.
"The choice I was faced with was to accept something that I did not believe was good enough, or resign, so I decided to resign," he said. As a result, the department got $96 million for 145 extra staff and other measures to cut the claims backlog and Mr Gee didn't have to follow through with his threat to step back from the front bench.
Mr Gee also backed his record of delivering services and infrastructure to the region both in the parliament and in the electorate.
On Monday we will have Gee's funding wins for Calare.
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
