I got tired of waiting for someone to do it.
Independent candidate for Nepean
This place is home. And it deserves better.
For a long time, I kept waiting for the right person to step up for this community.
One day I realised I’d been waiting long enough. So I decided to be that person.
I’ve lived on the Peninsula for six years. It’s home because of the people. It’s bumping into someone you know at the shops, knowing the people behind the local businesses, and seeing just how much people here do for each other.
I’ve also seen how often our community gets overlooked.
Why Rosebud Hospital matters to me
My mum, Peta, lived in Mt Martha. When she needed urgent medical care, she’d ring her sister, my aunt in Rye, and ask her to take her to Rosebud Hospital.
Frankston Hospital frightened her. Rosebud was different. It was smaller and familiar, and she felt safe and listened to there.
Mum died in 2015, but I still think about how much that mattered to her.
Everyone on this Peninsula deserves a hospital where they feel safe, heard and cared for.
I’ve never been very good at keeping quiet when something isn’t right.
That’s part of why I became involved in the community independent movement. I was a director and secretary of Voices of Mornington Peninsula, and I’ve worked on independent campaigns. I’ve knocked on doors, stood at polling booths, talked to voters and seen what happens when ordinary people decide politics doesn’t have to belong entirely to political parties.
But none of that was leading towards me becoming a candidate. I was just doing my bit.
What I’d bring to the job
By trade, I’m a marketer.
I’ve spent my career listening to people, understanding what matters to them, making complicated things easier to understand and advocating for the people organisations are supposed to serve.
That’s useful experience for an MP.
Why independent?
I’m running as an independent because I want to be free to put this community first.
No party room telling me how to vote. No party line to defend when it doesn’t make sense here.
I answer to Nepean, not a party room.
Why the robin?
You’ll see our little yellow robin throughout this campaign, and there’s a fabulous reason for that.
The Eastern Yellow Robin is found here on the Mornington Peninsula. There’s the obvious connection to Robbins, but I also love what the robin represents: hope and the promise of better days ahead.
