I HAVE been a frontline leader in the Farrer community for the past 20 years and am currently an elected member of Albury City Council and serving my fifth term as mayor.
I grew up one of five children on a cattle property in the Victorian high country. Living in a small country town taught me community values from an early age.
I took duty and an empathy for others into the workforce when I became a police officer, named Victorian Youth Police Officer of the Year in 2007.
I was awarded Albury citizen of the year in 2010, have been recognised as a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International and currently hold several senior governance positions including chair of Riverina and Murray Joint Organisation (RAMJO) and deputy chair of NSW Regional Cities.
Farrer’s challenges aren’t unique but there are individual circumstances including geographical challenges along a vast stretch of the Murray River with cross border anomalies and the issues that confront isolated rural and regional communities.
My roles within local government have taken me deep into the heart of communities across Farrer and the length of the Murray River.
I have seen the neglect. If things don’t change, these communities will continue to decline, impacted by increased unfairness and lack of accountability.
Many of those living in Farrer communities look across the Murray to their Victorian neighbours and see a better life.
These communities are entitled to better political representation and better leadership.
They seek a voice that will turn the voice to this region; a voice that comes from someone listening to and caring about what people want.
Farmers in the Murray Valley have no water to grow crops.
The message they were seeking to send to the wider electorate at the recent Albury rally is that it’s all about the impact on business across Farrer.
When you have farmers unable to grow crops and earn a living, then you have no expenditure in our towns and cities.
Businesses small and large are impacted when their own incomes decline. Our health services are also impacted when communities experience growing mental health problems because of the pressure on farmers and their families.
We have seen the Liberal member Sussan Ley change her position on the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
At the rally she agreed with those seeking to "Pause the Plan" and then she was forced to backflip on that position and find those who would agree with her that the plan should not be paused.
I will be free of policy conformity and political masters. I will act for the people of Farrer, in the interest of fairness, equity and sincerity.
I support the farming community’s call to Pause the Plan and establish a Royal Commission that would review and revise the impact of the plan on the nation’s southern food bowl.
The Murray Darling Plan is not working for farmers, for the environment, for our national and state economies, nor for our regional economies and plans to grow regional Australia.
The provision of water is only one part, of what must be a wider strategy for a prosperous regional Australia.
The election of independents in other regional electorates demonstrates a changing point of view among voters.
I acknowledge what independents have achieved in other electorates. These are representatives whose work truly reflects the views of the community.
The power of one person as an independent is as strong as the community that finds its voice to empower that person as the representative who will act in their best interests.
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