Hello, I'm Emma and I'm honoured to be your Greens candidate for Wide Bay.

I love living in Gympie and I love this beautiful part of the world. After arriving from the Sunshine Coast 20 years ago, I fell in love with the shift in gears that our more laid back and friendly community provides. 

I’m a person with a disability and an ambulatory wheelchair user. Over the last five years, I’ve started to traverse around the area in my power wheelchair (sometimes with my beautiful dog, Nutmeg, who you may have met!) and connect with people. 

I have a massive love for volunteering, assisting at events and supporting local community groups to grow while also encouraging accessibility and inclusion. I think it’s important to turn my own lived experience in disability, health services and homelessness into action and advocacy to help others experiencing those same issues.

I want to see everyone in our community gain the services and support they genuinely need to stay and grow in the area for many generations to come. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable people in our community are struggling to keep their heads above water with the rising cost of living  and the horrific ongoing housing crisis. People with disabilities, elderly people, young people, single parents and their children make up a large cohort of those finding it tough. Human services are over capacity with requests for help and understaffed or underfunded to do so.

Meanwhile, the major parties continue to pander to their corporate donors instead of looking after the needs of everyday people like you and me.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

When we unite together, we can flip the script. We can have high quality and genuinely free public education. We can expand Medicare to include mental health and dental care and make it available for everyone when they need it, without a massive bill. We can have affordable and accessible housing by introducing rent caps and regulating the banks to make mortgages cheaper. We can bring down the cost of electricity and take strong action on climate change by expanding publicly owned renewables and rooftop solar. 

Labor and the Liberals are not serious about real change. They are funded by the very corporations profiting off the cost of living crisis.

The Greens aren’t. We cannot be bought and we will not sell out.

We can lift the area up so that everyone has what they need to live a good life. If we get the basics right now and plan for the future, things will be a bit brighter for everyone.

If you want change you have to vote for it. This time, vote 1 Greens.