A community that comes together can achieve great things.

Over the last three years I have, along with people in our community, found and then lead drives to:

• protect Luna Park
• complete Harry’s Park
• protect Wendy’s Secret Garden in perpetuity, and
• build the Sydney Harbour High Line.

Good government, at all levels, requires rational discussion of the facts leading to the adoption and implementation of well thought out policies.

The imperative is that our elected representatives focus on representing the electorate and not engage in warfare between themselves.

I’ve lived:

• on the Lower North Shore for forty years;
• since 2006, in Milsons Point

I’ve become increasingly frustrated by the ever-widening gulf between our community and those that represent us. A gulf that’s made the fight to protect and add to our community assets (Luna and Harry’s Parks, Wendy’s Secret Garden, and the Sydney Harbour High Line) a hard slog – it just should not be this way.

I reached the point – complaining about it needed to give way to doing something about it …

At the state level our representatives, with time, focus on the internal machinations of their party and disconnect from those that they represent.

• The by-election was set for early April 2017. The decision to stand was taken four weeks out from the election. The message I took from receiving more than 9% of the vote was that a lot of people in our community felt ignored by main stream parties.

At the local government level North Sydney Council had become dysfunctional, a creature of factions.

A State Government Inquiry confirmed this.

• The election was held in September 2017. The message I took from the by-election we reinforced by receiving more than 20% of votes cast in the ward – the message was more forcefully put was that people in our community are tired of being ignored.