Hi! I’m Katinka and I’m your returning Greens candidate for Cooper in the 2024 Queensland State election.

I’m a life-long local with professional experience in community advocacy and support work. I’ve got deep roots in our community – I grew up here attending local schools, and worked in local businesses throughout university. When it came time to start my career, my partner and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, and we are lucky to call Bardon our home.

Like many Queenslanders, Cooper residents are feeling the pinch. From electricity to groceries, household bills are out of control. Rents and mortgage repayments are soaring, pushing affordability beyond reach. Local businesses are struggling to keep their doors open, causing a devastating loss of jobs, services and community connection. Meanwhile, property developers are making record profits with bad developments that keep property prices and rents high while impacting liveability and character.

We have some of the best teachers and state schools in Queensland, but they’re still underfunded by millions of dollars each year, resulting in overcrowded classrooms, disengaged young people, and more out-of-pocket expenses for families. Our public health system is buckling under the weight of increased physical and mental health impacts in the aftermath of a global pandemic, with nurse and staff burnout at an unacceptable rate.

All of this is against the backdrop of a worsening climate crisis and a political system that puts the best interests of big corporations ahead of us.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Our state has extraordinary wealth, which should be utilised to ensure a sustainable and fair future for all of us.

A future where everyone has a safe and secure place to call home, by capping rent increases and building more social housing. A future with world class, universal education and public health, and accessible and robust public services like childcare and public transport. A future with cheap, 100% sustainable renewable energy sources, manufactured here in Queensland. And a future where our elected representatives are not on the take from big corporations like banks, property developers and the fossil fuel industry.

The Greens don’t accept corporate donations. As your representative, I’ll work for the interests of our community, and put political decision-making back where it should be: in the hands of the people.