Freedom a focus for fresh UAP face

THE United Australia Party’s Terri Pryse-Smith will contest the Federal seat of Ballarat in next month’s election.

A recently retired agricultural science businessperson, former teacher and “passionate conservative”, Ms Pryse-Smith said she needed to raise her hand when Clive Palmer called for candidates.

She said small business operation has become “much harder,” freedoms have been “eroded,” and that the values of hard work, family and homeownership should be “restored.”

“Our freedoms have become so limited, and we’ve seen huge government overreach. We want small government,” she said.

“I like conservatism, it’s a strength. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. We’re a conservative family… and fiscally we’re conservative too. We’ve always grown organically in business and believe in living within your means.

“That’s where the government’s got it so wrong in the last 20 years; they haven’t lived within their means, and when they inherited a surplus, they’ve wasted it.

“I’ve got two adult children, and I want the same future for them that I had, to work hard, save money, and not give huge amounts to the government to waste on ridiculous schemes and policies.”

Freedom is one of her policy focuses, alongside reversing COVID-19 vaccination mandates, capping homebuyer interest rates at three per cent for five years, investing superannuation domestically, processing minerals in Australia, “kick-starting” the economy through new jobs, and creating “safe nuclear power.”

Ms Pryse-Smith will also advocate for infrastructure funding to keep up with growth, a “revamp” of the education system back to basics, and to bring back jobs in coal.

“I think climate change is a complete and utter scam… To me, it’s a trojan horse to implement things that will impoverish countries around the world,” she said.

“This terrible attack and fear campaign on young people needs to stop.”

Ms Pryse-Smith grew up in greater Melbourne. As a language teacher, she’s worked in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Portugal, England and Australia.

Alongside her husband, she has been marketing and selling assisted animal reproduction technologies for almost 30 years.

“It’s been a very tough 20 years in the agriculture region. Our challenge has been to grow more animal on less land, so that’s where artificial breeding and IVF comes into play,” she said.

“I had to learn a whole new skillset besides teaching, but really loved being in the business world, the vet world, and working with wonderful farmers.

“With business skills behind me, I do have some advantage over a lot of career politicians. I’m new, but I’ll learn as I go.”

Ms Pryse-Smith said she enjoys the lifestyle and opportunities that Ballarat provides, where she can go horse riding on her ten-acre Ross Creek property, and take a short drive to access artistic and cultural events in town.

“My two major passions are my family, and my home. Homeownership is incredibly important in this country. It was always a dream of ours.

“I want to restore the values of hard work… a home over our heads, a nice family, a nice meal, to send our kids to school, and to buy our own home,” she said.