THE Goulburn Greens and the Southern Highlands Greens local groups have selected their candidate for the seat of Goulburn for the State election on March 26.
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Maree Byrne will take on the Liberals Pru Goward and the only other announced candidate, the Christian Democratic Party’s Adrian Van Der Byl.
Convenor of the Southern Highlands Greens, Jim Clark said he was pleased to announce Ms Byrne’s selection.
“Maree has been an active member of our group for many years and is a strong supporter of Greens policies and principles,” he said.
“She has demonstrated a passion for sustainability and the environment through her work with CANWin (Climate Action Now Wingecarribee) and as a community member of Wingecarribee Shire Council’s environment and sustainability committee.
“Her broad work experiences as a teacher in Malaysia, nurse and health educator in Dubbo and the far west region, and business owner in Canberra and the Southern Highlands give her a practical and ‘down to earth’ appreciation of the world and society.
He suspected the seat of Goulburn would be keenly fought.
Ms Byrne has been a resident of the Southern Highlands for 15 years, which has included involvement in a successful business and community work. She also said that she’d had a background in farming and country town living, which she believed would place her well in the Goulburn electorate.
“I am dismayed at the ineptness and loss of direction displayed by the Labor party, while the Liberals continue to follow the dictates of big business and the Nationals have betrayed their roots by supporting the mining and coal seam gas industries at the expense of their historic constituency, the agricultural community of the state,” she said.
“The Greens, as the third force in politics, are the party that can be trusted to stick to their word, and bring a long term perspective to their grass roots policy making decision and I am proud to be their candidate.”
While based in the Southern Highlands, Ms Byrne believes she has a firm grasp of the issues that matter to the people of Goulburn.
“I understand that there has been quite a lot of development recently in Goulburn,” she said.
“The Greens would like to carefully look at infrastructure provided for the future, and we include all of the big spending area such as health, education and TAFE training when we say that.”
Another key area Ms Byrne highlighted was police and justice services.
“There are some alarming statistics about recidivism in NSW which are very pertinent for Goulburn,” she said.
“In this state, 42.4 per cent of prisoners released return to prison within two years which is the second highest figure in Australia. The Greens would rather spend more money on things like TAFE, training and employment opportunities for people with these particular barriers than continue spending such a huge amount on keeping them in prison.”
Ms Byrne said the Greens supported nurses in their campaign for better staff to patient ratios and would outline further transport policies that would be of interest to Goulburn. She also listed key Greens platforms such as the environment, water and climate change which would remain central to the Party’s campaigning.
