What motivated you to run for the seat of Newcastle?
In 1970 I won a Rotary scholarship and lived in the Philippines for a year. I lived with eight wealthy families during the year behind high fences with security to protect themselves and their wealth. They were fearful I would be kidnapped as I was seen as wealthy and could be held for ransom.
I loved the year but was shocked by the disparity between rich and poor and can still see the little boy late at night tapping on the taxi window begging when I arrived in Manila. It seems to me that in Australia the rich
are getting richer and although we are wealthy many people are being left behind. I value our freedom and believe in a fair society.
* Is this the first time you have contested a Federal election?
Yes.
What issues are important to you in the electorate?
I am a midwife and lactation consultant. I believe we need to get back to the basics. An optimum birth experience should be a priority. A quiet single room should be available to all mothers not just the privately insured. The cost cutting and staff patient ratios affect care of the mother and baby. Birth can be a very frightening time and having a well supported mother is critical to get families off to a good start. Human breast milk is recommended by the World Health organization as the first choice in infant nutrition. For many women breastfeeding does not come easily. With adequate time and care most women can breast feed and all can benefit. I would see the recommendations from the 2007 Parliamentary inquiry into breastfeeding implemented especially a regulatory framework for donor milk banking. One of the biggest killers of babies is prematurity and human milk can protect these vulnerable infants. I would also like to see a Family centered Neonatal unit which would allow mothers and sick infants to stay together. A public IVF clinic such as that offered to women in Sydney would also be good as well as a live in center for women requiring more time adjusting the parenthood.
What would be your first priority if elected?
That is not an easy question to answer but I guess I would start at the beginning. A clean healthy environment so people can have good health. Fair and equitable housing, education from the cradle to the grave. I appeared before the Productivity Commission to argue the case for Paid Parental leave because parents should not be forced back to work due to financial hardship after having a baby. A well educated mother can give her children a great start and then childcare centers should be adequately funded and the workers remunerated adequately so we can have the best people looking after the little ones. The early years are critical and the infants brain is rapidly growing and learning. I support Gonski and then TAFEs and
Universities. People should be able to be retrained in this changing society and we should not be depleting third world countries of nurses and doctors when we have our own. There are many graduate nurses in Australia
without jobs because they cannot get experience.
* What will people be getting if they vote for you?
A person who is looking to the future and is wanting a better world for my children and grandchildren. We have to tackle climate change. We need a foreign policy that prevents wars and not go blindly from one disaster to another. Vietnam should have been a lesson but now we have the civilians of
Iraq and Afghanistan dealing with our involvement in their wars. I think we are totally over governed and would use the 21st century technologies to bring Government down to Local and Federal Government level. Sydneysiders do not care that the people of Stockton or Mayfield or Carrington are breathing in coal dust every day. They are only interested in the royalties from coal. With strong local governments who have to run their own schools and hospitals to a national curriculum or standard we could address local needs and not have differences from State to State.. The Federal Government who looks after defence, foreign policy, the river systems, climate change, border protection. One less level or argument and paper work and cost. With
the National Broadband State Government could be a thing of the past.
Who will you be preferencing?
Of the big parties, the Greens and Labor.
How do you rate your chances of winning?
It would be nice to win as I think it is time some real people got into government, not just lawyers and professional politicians but I do not have the resources of the big parties so think it unlikely.
Can you tell us a little about your background and what skills you think you can bring to the role?
I am a mother of 5 grown up children and grandmother of 6 wonderful grandchildren. I have worked for as long as I can remember. My family ran a small country hotel and I waited on tables before catching the school bus and helped when I got home from school. I trained as a nurse at the Royal Melbourne Hospital after returning from the Philippines and decided to become a midwife after working in Papua New Guinea for two years. I really wanted to be with mothers and babies. I have worked shift work and done many years of night duty to support the family. I know an industrial relations system that cares for workers is vital. I have gone home on several occasions so tired due to staff shortages and poor patient ratios and not getting proper breaks after a ten hour shift that I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel. Workers should be kept safe. Like big companies I think unions need proper governance.
I have worked on the different Boards and committees in midwifery and lactation at a local and national level. I have traveled and lived extensively overseas and seen many different ways of doing things.
What do you think will be your biggest challenge in this election?
Winning it.
Two highly publicized issues in this election have been the issue of same sex marriage and the asylum seeker issues, where do you stand on these issues?
– If people of the same sex love each other and marriage will make them happy I cannot see it hurting any-one. Good luck to them.
– Asylum seekers who come by boat are at risk of drowning at sea. I
think the problem should be tackled at source with an embassy on the ground so that people wishing to immigrate can apply before boarding the boats. There are plenty of asylum seekers who overstay visas and they also need to be formalized otherwise they are at risk of exploitation. The problem is there are 40 million refugees in the world and only a few countries like Australia who can give them a reasonable life. We cannot take them all and we need to go back to the United Nations and work with other nations to solve the crisis. PNG and Manus Island is not a solution. PNG is a third world country and I know when I talked to some of the Melanesians when I lived there about the Vietnamese boat people coming to Australia. They were completely unsympathetic and said we should send them back. I think we may be creating more problems by sending vulnerable people to Manus.
