I'm open to discussing politics and looking at all sides of politics. I'm other words I'm not shy to discuss if it is brought out in conversation. Politics is part of our lives. Sometimes a great part of our lives.
I've always said politicians are underpaid from local right through to Federal. I've supported local politicians, representing different parties and running as Independents, in the past. So I may have an understanding of what it takes to be one. I was asked to run for Blacktown City Council as an Independent and told I could have won Ward 5. I declined the offer. I was advocating for the return of buses back into Mount Druitt and was told by high profile Labour local branch Members then, ' I will never win against the then Labor State Government and around here as we have strong Labour Members here.'
The winning, they were talking about, was actually getting back the buses to community members that needed these services. Politics can be dirty when you are just an advocate. They were not happy that I was creating a political storm by obtaining signed petitions, to get the buses back to the people. Two of the Labor Party Branch Members said you are doing things wrong. I should be raising this issue to the North Mount Druitt Labor Party Branch and it gets 'fixed' by them. My answer was, 'I'm not a Labor Party member. Actually, I'm not a member of any party! So why should I?' That stunned them. I later found out they would have swept this matter under their carpet and it would have been forgotten.
The good news was the Labor Party Members were wrong. The noise had to be created, I was asked by community members who were both Labor Party Members and members of the Whalan Community Action Group and a Greens Local Member to run meetings to bring these busses back. I loved being an advocate for the community. We had a rally at Dawson Mall, where there would have been 200 people turning up with me on a megaphone and my voice carried. People never had this type of rally in Mount Druitt. I had organised a huge meeting at a round table for community members at a Women's Centre. I had the local press interviews me for these required bus services - people were looking up at me - politicians could not be seen.
I held a meeting at Whalan Community Hall for the State Members from Mount Druitt and Londonderry to attend and please explain. It got a bit heated but it was controlled. The response I got from both State Members was ' We didn't know about the services going?'
The problem was you have NSW Government Bus contracts going for tendering to private companies. The private bus companies, make the recommendations to the NSW Government back then to remove bus services (Minster of TransportNSW would have known). So how the communication doesn't go to the NSW State Members - I don't know - it could have been a break of communication. One person (not confirmed by others) said both State Members knew about the cuts in bus services and didn't think anything of it. The best thing was when the 755 Bus Service was re-introduced - it wasn't about me! It was about the group we then formed ' Save our Bus Services, Mount Druitt and surrounding suburbs. Front Page was all about the re-introduction of the bus service.
In a Blacktown City Council Transport Forum, I spoke to a Busways Representative and was told because we had a bus service re-introduced, they had to remove another service from the area. So I mentioned, when you took out the service due to anti-social behaviour to bus drivers and passengers - where did you place that service.... not much was said. See the bus service that was cut, was cut travelling to public housing areas within Mount Druitt.
I was asked here to run for Shoalhaven City Coul, because of my basic knowledge of local Council. I thought about and learned a bit about the area. What I learned was you needed to know about the history of the area: understand the beautiful history, nature, bush, sights and our local business require the economic spending that tourists bring into the area. This brings in growth and employment. Some residents are against that for traffic reasons. You know, I declined to run for Council as I knew there were better-qualified people, ready to be Councilors and there were deeper issues to be dealt with in Council
In relation to healthy conversations, we need to spark a bit of interest. The funny thing about the recent election we had was safe seats, were not safe seats anymore for both parties and when Sconmo was elected in 2019 as Prime Minister, he had a majority of 77 members of Parliament. Albo has rightfully obtained 77 members majority in the Australian government as well.
So, does that mean he will get the same heat as Scomo. No, he is in settling in time and I hope that when he has a holiday that he is not asked to come back to Australia because people wanted him back. Every politician deserves a break. I mean everyone!
The question of why I haven't scrutinised Scomo in past, I knew his father, who was an Independent at Waverley City Council and was a mayor for a period of time as well. So, I had respect for Scomo in relation to a majority of decisions made by him and his government. Not all decisions he made I agreed. He kept the country to a very good balance lower housing interest rates, and lower unemployment rates which turned out Albo was stumped on earlier in the election campaign. He managed the Pandemic to the best of his ability. I don't think he will have any problems from here on in.
Australians that voted Albo in for government, must not keep one eye open to see one side, everyone needs to be a critic. Albo's a PM as he made their promises and we as a public must see that we keep them honest and see if they stand for what they wanted to do. Don chip, former Democrat Leader (which merged with Australia Party) said, ' We need to keep the bastards honest!' I'd rather say 'We need to keep our PM, from here to be honest!
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