Ryan Brook – Greens Councillor on Tamworth Council
I was a slow start within the Greens, but I’m making up that time now. I originally joined back in 2017, wanting to support the party I saw with both the policy platform and the actions in parliament that represented my values in politics.
But I was largely an inactive member up until 2022. What got me active was that while I was recovering from treatment for testicular cancer I didn’t have the ability to do much more than just watch the escalating chaos of a world navigating the height of a global pandemic. I became (and still am) pissed off about inequalities in access to healthcare in regional NSW. So I decided if I survived treatment, I was going to get active and do something to help improve the world.
I approached my local group to see if they would like me to make a campaign video for them for New England in the 2022 Federal Election (before my cancer diagnosis I was a professional videographer).
This led to me handing out how-to-vote flyers at polling booths at that election, which in turn led to me being approached to run for the electorate of Tamworth at the 2023 NSW State Election. An offer I immediately declined.
But the more I thought about it, I had some stuff I wanted to say regarding regional healthcare, and how Tamworth deserved better than a Labor Party that long since gave up on the bush, and the Nats who were so electorally comfortable they didn’t even pretend to be trying anymore.
I thought if I was going to have strongly held beliefs, I ought to be prepared to put myself out of my comfort zone to do something to uphold them. And I figured if I could survive chemo I could survive an election campaign.
When the election was over, I was touched by the number of people who reached out to me, from across the political rainbow, encouraging me to run for council. And the experience made me realise Tamworth wasn’t quite the conservative stronghold everyone wrote it off as. There are pockets of progressivism, but something was needed to get those people working together. And to me, the answer was greener, better politics.
These days I’m Tamworth’s first and youngest ever Councillor, and together with our other local Greens we’re showing Tamworth that better representation and a better future is possible.
Ryan