Greens MP Dawn Walker visited Glen Innes last week.
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Ms Walker met some shire councillors and visited the TAFE campus and Armajun Aboriginal Health Centre while in Glen Innes.
Having only entered parliament in February, replacing Greens MP Jan Barham in the upper house, Ms Walker said she was taking the opportunity to get around the state.
“This is the great thing about being an MLC for NSW is I do now have the opportunity to come to communities and really see what’s happening on the ground, meeting local people and listening to their issues, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the warmth of communities.”
Ms Walker highlighted TAFE and health as two areas of concern to the country towns.
“There’s concern again, right across NSW, about funding cuts that have been occurring in TAFE and the effect that is having on regional TAFE establishments, and what that means for young job seekers and local businesses in getting appropriate training,” Ms Walker said.
One area she is responsible for in her parliamentary portfolio is forestry, and while in the New England region she visited Styx River State Forest east of Armidale.
Invited by New England groups concerned about potential logging breaches, Ms Walker visited the state forest on Wednesday before travelling to Glen Innes last Thursday.
A former policy adviser for a Victorian government department, Small Business Victoria, covering industry, employment and education, Ms Walker moved to the north coast of NSW about a decade ago.
There, she found her advocacy skills, used as a policy adviser and a consultant, came in handy to assist the coastal community when it faced development issues.
“The idea was we were going to have a quiet life in a small coastal village,” Ms Walker said.
There she got very involved with the north coast community near Tweed Heads.
“There were some big development pressures on the local environment, so I started to use the skills I’d learnt in policy work to advocate for the community, one thing led to another, and I could see the community needed a political voice so I joined the Greens.”
Ms Walker ran twice as a candidate for the Greens in the federal seat of Richmond.
After visiting the New England region, Ms Walker said she had enjoyed meeting with local residents.
“I’m always very touched by the capacity of local people to continue to advocate for their place and for their community, and their environment.
“And I’m very clear about what my job is, and that is to take their concerns back to Sydney, and to advocate for those areas.”