SALLY Townley’s campaign to stand as an Independent candidate in the NSW State Government election was officially launched on Wednesday 8 February in the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden.

Attracting a group of Coffs Coast residents, Sally shared highlights of her campaign.

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She acknowledged Gumbaynggirr Elder Aunty Bea Ballangarry as “a special guest, a compassionate and inspiring awesome human”.

Ms Townley took the opportunity to introduce her policy platforms.

“Some things are of state-wide interest and a few issues are specific to our community on the Coffs Coast,” she said.
One of the broader issues is education.

“Our state education system is in a mess, with massive teacher shortages, thousands of vacancies and wages issues.

“Kids are missing out on the educational experience and on having more supervision and pastoral care, social and emotional support and schools are overcrowded,” she said.

She noted that Moonee Beach is opening up “hundreds and hundreds of new residential blocks” and that means potentially a couple of thousand more people living in that suburb.

“The Department of Education has owned property on the west side of the highway earmarked for a new school for decades and there’s no action there.

“I want to put that front and centre that the community of the Northern Beaches desperately needs that new primary school to be fast tracked.”

Another state wide/nationwide issue playing out in Coffs Harbour is housing.

“Rental housing and mortgages becoming unaffordable is putting a great deal of stress on people.”

Ms Townley said there’s a lot the government can do to relieve housing pressures with real investment.

“Close to home, I want to put the Jetty Foreshore development front and centre as part of my campaign.

“Watching this space we have seen plan after plan where the government tries to come forward and basically convert that public open space into its own cash cow.

“All of us have been to that space, all of us have enjoyed picnics and walks on the beach and in the playground and admired the beautiful bush regeneration fostering that coastal ecosystem.

“That’s what that place is about.

“It ought not to become a private suburb.

“We’re seeing these plans dressed up as activations, saying this will be good for the community.

“In my opinion it’s a naked grab for that land to then convert it into high value real estate.

“I definitely think there’s more room for some forms of development at The Jetty but do it in keeping with what’s already there; maybe dining establishments, playgrounds, bike paths, maybe some waterplay, things that enhance the existing values, but don’t convert it into an entirely different land use.”

Ms Townley concluded her launch by calling for transparency in government.

“Even as recently as the past couple of days with the parliamentary inquiry finding former NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s posting to a highly paid job in New York was evidently a ‘job for the boys’ appointment.

“If those people are supposedly leaders, what’s happening below that.

“How can you have faith in that, how can you have trust in that?” she posed.

“There’s been a couple of inquiries into how grants are administered.

“It’s very clear that it’s just a rort.

“Projects are being put forward on little merit at the expense of other projects which do meet the criteria and are getting shunted off the table just because they are in an opposition electorate.

“It makes a mockery of the whole system.”

By Andrea FERRARI