We are lucky to live close to nature and experience it each day in Queanbeyan-Palerang. We need to better care for and protect this living natural environment that sustains us and enriches our lives.

The 2019-20 bushfire emergency caused much destruction, loss and grief across Australia, devastating our local communities and our biodiversity. It should be the final wake-up call to do what is needed to create a safe future for everyone and protect the unique natural places that mean so much to us.

Queanbeyan has been my home since I moved here to work as a journalist in the Australian Parliament in 1991. I joined The Greens 21 years ago after seeing Greens senators at work, and later, I became an adviser to Christine Milne, Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle. I’ve also worked on environmental issues and policy in the Australian Public Service for 16 years.

I have been a member of the local council’s Environment and Sustainability Advisory Committee for the past three years and am active in a number of local community groups. For more than a decade I have advocated for local climate action, sustainable transport, and the protection of natural and cultural heritage.

Our community needs strong leadership on all of these issues as well as greater accountability in local government and opportunities for people from all the towns, villages and rural districts to shape a sustainable, safe and optimistic future. 

As a Greens councillor, I will work to make sure residents from the bush, the villages and the city are heard, to make planning fairer and more open, and to restore integrity and trust in local government. I will also work to protect nature, which is our most reliable carbon capture system, and take urgent and decisive action to mitigate the climate emergency.