Katherine/NT 2024 state election

Here is the Katherine Taffic Light Voting Guide. Download, print and fill it in at home and then take it to the polling booth with you to easily transfer your choices onto the ballot paper.  Alternatively take your phone with you when you head off to vote and you can then access our advice on the screen.

If you have any information which may inform our candidate assessments please use our contact form at the bottom of this page or phone Rob on 0427 580803

Green Light Candidates

Sam Phelan

About Dr Sam Phelan

Hi, I am Sam Phelan and I’m running as your independent candidate for Katherine.  

I am a local mother of three and a self-employed veterinarian. I have worked remote in the Greater Katherine region for 25 years and lived in Katherine itself for the last 8 years.  

A strong independent voice will create Katherine focussed answers to the problems we face, answers not bound to party politics.  

I believe those answers lie within, not outside our community and I want to hear visions for Katherine from the whole community. It’s time we talk about the big issues affecting our home with a voice that unites to find answers, rather than divides.  

We all have reasons to get involved based on our own experience in this town. I have decades of knowledge related to science, business management, effective community engagement, and program development.  

I want to use my skills to listen to local knowledge and create change that is tried and true. We need immediate fixes, but also pathways for the strategic, safe, and sustainable development of our town and region.  

I hope you’ll join me, have your voice heard, and help build a stronger and safer Katherine for today and future generations.  

Environment

In the face or rapid agricultural expansion, fracking and mining, we must lay strong foundations to protect our regions climate and water security for future generations. I believe we can create an alternative economic vision for the Territory that focuses on the development of renewable energy, protects nature, and preserves our valuable water resources. I will work to 

Protect Climate:

1. Ensure fracking in the Beetaloo and McArthur Basin cannot go ahead until all Pepper Inquiry Recommendations are really met in full. In particular the need to offset all Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions from fracking, and make sure all independent scientific assessments about potential risks to water are completed.
2. Stop the Northern Territory Government giving any more public money to fossil fuel companies. 
3. Ensure the $1.5 billion Federal Middle Arm subsidy is redirected to support the development of a strong renewable energy sector in the Territory, including the creation of a large storage capacity batery to allow all current solar farms to be turned on and our power bills to go down. 
4. Promote the development of microgrids to ensure smaller communities across the NT have access to renewable energy. 

Protect Water:

1. Fund Management Advisory bodies for the Roper and Daly Catchments to make sure these rivers are protected from over extraction.
2. Make sure all water allocation plans contain sustainable levels of water use, as defined by the National Water Initiatve (NWI) 
3. Pursue Water Act reform that enforces all water plans, even historic ones, making sure they comply with the National Water Initiative that the NT signed up to in 2004.
4. Review the Georgina Wiso and Mataranka Water Plans that were not NWI compliant
5. Reinstate the 1 km land clearing buffer on all major rivers. 
6. Create Safe Drinking Water Laws for the Territory. 

Protect Land: 

1. Place land clearing applications in the hands of an independent regulator,  and away from the Pastoral Land Board.
2. Ensure Native Title owners are consulted and can negotiate about land being cleared for large agriculture. 
3. Continue to expand Gamba and Buffel Grass reduction programs.