Anne Wicks is the Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party candidate running for the seat of Chisholm.

Wicks has worked previously as a photographer and a small business owner, after growing up in regional Victoria. Additionally, she has had an extensive career in the health industry, with large involvement in aged care.

This experience in aged care has become her focus for this election and she has pledged to make changes to ensure that all older Australians can have a comfortable living while in aged care facilities. Wicks lists in her biography, on her party’s website, the failures that occur under the current standards, such as inadequate food and staffing conditions as well as a lack of sanitary products. She supports the work previously taken to better these conditions by her party leader, Senator Derryn Hinch, who introduced legislation to correct staffing issues through the Aged Care Amendment (Ratio of Skilled Staff to Care Recipients) Bill 2017.

Wicks has no digital media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, personal website, or blog available to highlight what policies she is personally supporting or what she would implement to the electorate of Chisholm if elected. Her comments on improving the aged care system are not mentioned in policies made by the party. The campaign run by Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party is in favour of reforming various aspects of the legal system to protect families and the community from dangerous individuals. Wicks was not available to discuss the policies with D*Scribe.

The following is a summary of the policies Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party is actively campaigning for:

• Justice in Sentencing; to make the sentencing of criminals longer and align with the public’s view and not based on precedent.
• Bail Reform; to relinquish the right to bail when an alleged offender is on trial for a violent crime or if they have a history of violence.
• Parole Reform; increase requirements so parole is tougher to obtain, ensuring the community is safe from convicted violent criminals.
• Domestic Violence Law Reform; refine domestic violence laws to create safer communities.
• Animal Justice; to stop the export of live animals and enforce stricter penalties against animal cruelty.
• Dying with Dignity; to allow voluntary euthanasia and further expand the Dying with Dignity Act from Victoria to all states and territories.
• Public Register of Convicted Sex Offenders; this is the main policy for Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party, and it would make changes to the existing register of convicted sex offenders. It would become a public database that shows basic details of the offender, but keep confidential details about the case reserved for all police officers.

There are eight candidates contesting the seat of Chisholm, but the sitting member Julia Banks, who won the seat in 2016 for the Liberal Party, is not re-contesting election as she quit the Liberal party at the end of 2018 after the Malcolm Turnbull Scott Morrison leadership spill. She is running as an Independent in the seat of Flinders this election instead.