WA Election – March 11, 2017

Election day is finally here.

Put a fresh voice in WA’s Upper House and vote 1 for Henry Heng in Family First!

An Interview with Mandarin Beats

The ‘Mandarin Beats’ host – Hui-Lin Tan, is one of the new multilingual generations of young pioneers, who believes in marrying social media platform with the traditional radio world to bring them collectively to another level.

Henry was invited to do an interview with Hui Lin – listen to the Soundcloud link below for more information on Family First’s North Metro Candidate this election.

“At Family First, we believe that essential things we look for are a good job, a house, good education, a safe environment, and opportunities for growth. We emphasise a lot on values like respect for others, compassion and courage”. – Henry Heng

Video: What Family First Stands For

In this election, vote for a fresh voice in WA’s Upper House!

On 11th of March, Vote 1 for Family First.

Why Vote for Family First?

Steve Penny explains why in his post.

“With another election only weeks away in 2016, the dilemma over who to vote for has never been greater. As Christians we are urged to take the choosing of our national leadership very seriously, and to then pray for the elected parliaments to govern our nation with wisdom and integrity. In the Bible we read of God’s people being enslaved to two political systems in their Old Testament history:

CAPTIVITY ONE – The Egyptian political system

Egypt fought their wars, enslaved their captives and possessed lands from a materialistic mindset or culture. They represent the right wing of politics: those who fight for the top end of town, for big business and prosperity for the smart and strong.

CAPTIVITY TWO – The Babylonian/Assyrian political system

The Assyrians fought their wars for a totally different reason. They desired to conquer and conform all other cultures to their one true belief system. They represent the left wing of politics, where socialism and the rights of the minorities, no matter how distorted they may be from normality or accepted social norms, become their primary focus.

Over the past decade or so we have witnessed the left of Australian politics trying to move toward the right and be the same as their enemies on the right. This did not work and threw the Lefties into a tailspin, with bloodletting and leadership changes becoming almost a daily occurrence.

However in more recent times, particularly with the Malcolm Turnbull coup to become Prime Minister, we now have a supposed right wing political party hell bent on becoming a left wing socialist movement.

The disgrace of Turnbull now acquiescing to every squeaky wheel of modern lunacy and radical extremism, means that any upright moral person with convictions regarding faith and family is now forced to look beyond these two major parties.

I am therefore forced to vote for parties that represent the moral convictions that I hold dear for my nation.

FAMILY FIRST cannot win the election and become our preferred political party in government. However, if enough people vote for their local Family First candidate, the party may accrue sufficient votes to have a person, or persons, elected to the Senate. The Senate is where all issues and legislation must ultimately be approved or rejected. I do not want a representative from the Greens or other minor cause-driven groups to be the controlling vote in the Senate.

I am praying for the Christian voice to be heard and seen through our vote at this year’s election. May God give us grace and courage to stand for what we know and believe to be the only hope for our great nation.

God Bless Australia.”

Excited to be featured on ABC News

WA election: Meet the micro party candidates most likely to win seats
By Laura Gartry

“Born in Singapore, conservative Christian Henry Heng, 61, owns a successful bottled water business in Perth’s north.

Despite never setting foot inside WA’s Parliament House, he is no stranger to elections, running in the last state election and three federal polls. Mr Heng has a strong chance of being elected in the region, as the Liberal Party has preferenced him first, above One Nation.

He is a long-term member of the evangelical Grace City Church in Osborne Park, which he said was the main reason he chose to migrate to Perth 21 years ago.

Mr Heng’s top priorities are job creation, housing affordability and stimulating the economy. But it is his party’s social policies that have attracted attention in the past, including its views on divorce, same-sex marriage and blended families.

Family First claims there are many detrimental factors associated with de facto living arrangements and divorce.

“Parental divorce reduces the likelihood that children will graduate from college, and achieve high-status jobs,” the WA website states.

“Marriage appears to reduce the risk that children and adults will be either perpetrators or victims of crime.

“Children who live with their own two married parents enjoy better physical health, on average, than children in other family forms.”

But when these claims were raised with Mr Heng, he said he did not support them.

Mr Heng said while he believed “strengthening the family unit is good for the children”, he acknowledged divorce was inevitable when a relationship had broken down.

“I will certainly take that up with the federal office because unless I see statistics on that, I’m not convinced … I will definitely get that looked into,” he said.”

The article can be found here.

 

A Feature on Yanchep News

Preference deals a game changer for Family First
By Ingrid Jacobson

Family First North Metropolitan candidate Henry Heng says the preference deals announced in the past week have boosted his chances of a winning an Upper House seat in the March 11 election.

“FAMILY First has gone from being a rank outsider to a real chance of winning a North Metropolitan Upper House seat following the release of preferences for next month’s State Election.

The party’s odds tightened on Tuesday after it became part of a dramatic preference deal by a block of five micro parties that made it “top dog” in the seat. This was further strengthened by the Liberals also preferencing it in North Metro ahead of One Nation. Add to this a plethora of other minor parties favouring Family First in the voting order and an interesting picture begins to emerge of a possible victory for the socially conservative party which was founded by Queenslander and former pastor Andrew Evans.

So much so that the party’s lead candidate, Henry Heng, admits to being “in total shock” after he opened the email detailing the outcome of preferences.

“To be honest, I thought we no chance before the preference deal,” he said. “I knew the deal would help but I never expected the Liberals to put me ahead of One Nation. Given that North Metro is the only region out of six in the State where Liberals have preferenced us at number three, this is a real game changer. I was also very happy when I saw that most of the other parties and independents had placed me reasonably high as well – the only party that’s put One Nation ahead of me is Shooters and Fishers and an independent.”

Mr Heng’s previous doubts were understandable following his “very disappointing” debut at the 2013 election when he got just 2900 votes. This was despite his own instinct that he had worked very hard along with his quirky YouTube video dubbed ‘Vote For Henry’ receiving 51,000 hits.

The West Perth resident who has lived in the North Metro region since he migrated from Singapore to Australia 20 years ago admits he was caught off guard when it came to being ready for the election, so little confidence did he have in winning.

Now he’s “rushing around getting my flyers printed” and no doubt saying a grateful prayer to Glenn Druery, the man known as “the preference whisperer” who brokered the deal between Family First, Flux the System, Flouride Free WA and Daylight Saving Party, which will now see them all preference each other for Upper House seats.

For small parties such as these, voting in a block is a chance to take on the major parties – Liberal and Labor – despite their policies often sharing little in common.

In the case of Family First, Mr Heng describes the party as being Christian-based with a main platform in support of small business.

“The party has been calling for a corporate tax rate of 20 per cent for the last 15 years,” he said. “When you think that the largest employer group in the country is small business, it makes sense that if they are doing well, more jobs will become available and the economy will do well too. We basically believe the government is trying to control too much and needs to allow more leeway for families to develop and grow.”

However, parties voting in a block can also lead to a similar situation such as the 2013 Senate election which saw candidates from the Australian Sports Party and the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party snatch seats in an upset over which Mr Druery was also the architect.

During an interview with the ABC last week, the eastern states broker said he was “very happy that Western Australia will see an outbreak of democracy”.

“I would suggest that a few (minor parties) will probably be having a very big smile on their faces on March 11,” he said. “I think one thing that could impact the minor parties’ success or not, will be just how much the Liberal Party vote falls off because of their deal with One Nation. If the Liberals vote falls off more than we expected then there is a very good chance that more minor parties might be elected.”

For voters, the jury is still out how much this trend will impact, with deals such as those between Liberal and One Nation, and the separate five-party pact also having the effect of muddying the waters when it comes to just who one is voting for. Obviously, it becomes even more important for punters to scrutinise their own vote and its consequences in an election that has already set records and in which the ballot sheet will be decidedly crowded. These include the highest number of candidates­ contesting seats in a WA election, 717 compared to the previous record of 560 in 2005, and an explosion of new parties.

In the North Metro region alone, there will be 19 columns on the ballot paper and overall, twice as many columns than in the 2013 election.

As ABC political blogger Antony Green told The West Australian last week, “With more than 50 candidates in every region, very few people will vote below the line. Under this system, the more important point is what parties do with their preferences. If a party gets any sort of preference vote, once the snowball of preference harvesting gets underway, you never know who’s going to be elected.”

Which has got candidates such as Mr Heng so hopeful although one gets the feeling that emotion is usually part of his general nature, given the life he has forged since coming to Australia 20 years ago.

Arriving “with not much”, he started a bottled water business called Refresh Pure Water and is both chairman and chief executive officer of the Refresh Group, which now has six factories across Australia and is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

He has been secretary of the Family First Party WA since August 2012, secretary of Full Gospel Business in Perth, was a board member of Grace City Church in Osborne Park, and a council member of Edith Cowan University. He and his psychologist wife, Cara, who is second on the ticket in the South Metropolitan region, are still members of the Grace City Church. Their involvement with the Australian Christian Churches Network led them both to politics. Mr Heng said that they had many shared values, including a deep interest in social causes.

“Those social causes don’t just revolve around the church or religion, as I am interested in many areas such as my work with Edith Cowan University Council,” he said. “My wife was a teacher in Singapore and now she is a psychologist so again, those professions involve helping people. We both believe that we have received a lot in life and need to give back to society.”

Family wise, the couple now have the time to do more of that, with their two daughters who are 31 and 28, having both forged successful careers. The eldest works as a lawyer in Sydney, the youngest is in marketing and lives in Berlin.

It was the Hengs’ desire to put their family first that led them to Australia. Mr Heng said the decision came about because Cara desperately wanted to raise her girls, rather than put them leave them with a nanny.

“In Singapore, people both need to work just to have a decent standard of life – for example, an ordinary car costs about $100,000,” he said. “So I told my wife the only way we could do it was to come to Australia and we haven’t looked back since.”
Family First North Metropolitan candidate Henry Heng says the preference deals announced in the past week have boosted his chances of a winning an Upper House seat in the March 11 election.”

See the article here: https://www.yanchepnewsonline.com.au/preference-deals-game-changer-family-first.

6PR Radio interviewed me on why people should vote Family First

Ahead of the July 2 Federal election, Gary Adshead spoke to candidates Henry Heng from the Family First Party, Dr Chris Howard from the Cyclists First Party, Nicki Hyde from Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party and Michael Baldestone from the Hemp Party.

Meet your Christian Candidates

Glad to be able to present why I’m running for the Federal Election and why I chose Family First at the event held at Gosnells Christian Reformed Church

THANK YOU

Elections are now over and it’s time to take a deep breath after all the campaigning. This is my first time running for election to government. I got involved in politics to have the opportunity to make a difference in Australia and even though we didn’t get a seat this time, the experience was one that I won’t forget.

The YouTube video has had over 16k viewers. Wow! We never imagined that we could spread the name of Family First so far and wide. We hope you enjoyed the jingle and it brightened your day.

Most of all, I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all my family, friends, volunteers, supporters, and those who voted for me. Without help from so many of you, we would never have achieved as much as we did. Thank you so much for journeying with me in this election experience. I am disappointed that the hard work had not been translated to votes. However, we have truly fought the good fight and have finished the race. That is what matters most!

I rally for your continuous support for Family First. Together, we can make a difference.

Henry Heng

The Heng Effect

“The Heng Effect” – a term coined by WAtoday in an article published yesterday.

Let’s hope that this particular Heng has made an effect as voting starts today. Yes, it is the BIG DAY so everyone make your way to the polling booths and fill out those numbers.

Spot the Family First team, making their rounds in bright orange shirts. They are friendly, say hello. You can perhaps even sing the jingle to them – might brighten up their day.

For those supporters of Henry Heng and the policies that he stands for, here’s how to vote:

NORTH METROPOLITAN REGION ELECTORAL DISTRICTS: Balcatta, Butler, Carine, Churchlands, Cottesloe, Girrawheen, Hillarys, Joondalup, Kingsley, Nedlands, Ocean Reef, Perth, Scarborough, Wanneroo

Thanks a lot for your support, and let’s start getting these elections rolling!