I’m Greg, your Greens candidate for Port Darwin.
I’m a Kriol interpreter, a linguist and a professional tennis umpire. I’ve lived in the Territory for over 20 years, working alongside First Nations people. We have a generous and creative community that cares about people and nature, but the major parties prefer to listen to their corporate donors. I’m running as your Greens candidate to give every person in Port Darwin the option to vote for something better.
I now live in the Darwin CBD. I love what living in the city offers me and my partner. We’re close to everything, and we can walk or ride to cafes, bars and the water. It’s a special place where you can live in the CBD and be only minutes away from patches of rainforest or our beautiful harbour.
But I know how many of our neighbours are struggling, especially with the high price of housing, shortage of public housing and insecure renting. The major parties won’t do enough to take on developers, build better housing on developer-owned land and make renting better and fairer - so the Greens are stepping up.
Like many of us, I’ve experienced crime - at my tennis club, break ins at home and a stolen car. I know this issue matters to our community and hurts people. I also know we can’t just build more expensive prisons and expect that to magically fix things. We need to reduce inequalities in the Territory and do what works: tackle the drivers of crime by making sure everyone has secure housing, good healthcare and access to the essentials.
I’ve been here long enough to remember when NT Labor restricted the use of Indigenous languages in schools and took away community councils. They have continually failed to prioritise public housing. I remember when the CLP sold off TIO and the Port of Darwin. Last year, Labor manipulated their response to ensure fracking would be safe so that they could greenlight impatient corporations looking to make a quick buck.
Territory politics doesn’t have to be this way. We have a Parliament dominated by the major parties who are in turn influenced by their corporate donors. The Territory needs people from outside politics to run, and that’s why I’ve put my hand up. That’s why we need a new perspective in our Parliament - it’s why we need the Greens.
