Fiona, born in Newtown
to Irish migrants has lived in the inner west for much of her life. She works
in book publishing, although she is currently at home raising her two
daughters, Hannah and Eloise. During a four-year stint overseas, Fiona became
active as a volunteer and, on her return to the Marrickville area with husband
Ben, she has taken part in local charity fundraising, particularly
youth-oriented projects. She revealed that it was the notorious Tampa election that
persuaded her to join the Greens, adding that they stood for something.
The Greens have a good chance as there has been long term
neglect of the state Seat of Marrickville. One of the things that Fiona feels
passionate about, as a mother having to push prams around, is the lack of
disabled access. “It came home to me when I was complaining to my mum about
having to struggle up and down Erskineville Station with a pram because there
is no disabled access. Mum said to me, ‘It was the same 30 years ago. Nothing
has changed’.”
How did she respond to the Transport Minister’s announcement
about Newtown?
Fiona was cynical. She pointed out that it’s only a scoping study – a design
study and there is no time-table for when we might see some movement.
Fiona pointed out there are about 10 or 11 stations in the
State Electorate of Marrickville and not one has a lift. She went on to say, “I
know of a guy who has a wheel chair and goes from Marrickville to the city. The
station at Marrickville has no lifts but the station on the side going west is
flat. Going early, he goes west to Lidcome, which has lifts and then comes east
into the city. It takes him three times as long and now, with the new time
table, it takes much longer. People want action, not just scope studies.”
The other issue concerning Fiona is the Port Botany expansion. She argues that this has
major consequences for the Marrickville electorate: “There has been no
comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment. While the assessment of the Port
itself actually only included 15% of actual external impact (the rest was over
water or the current site), there was no assessment of the freight rail or road
corridors. So there has been no consultation with people living along these
lines. If they hit their target of 40% of the freight on rail they will need to
run trains every 10 minutes 24 hours a day. These trains will have diesel
locomotives which have no regulations on them with regard to emissions. This
still leaves 60% of the freight to be moved by road to the distribution centres
in West and South-West Sydney. The only way to get from Botany to the west is
to come through Marrickville. Estimates show an increase in trucks through our
area of up to 200 a day. This leaves the burden of increased noise and air
pollution, and increased traffic conditions in the lap of the Marrickville
community. This is an unfair burden to put on one of the most intensely
populated areas of Sydney.
When the ports at Newcastle
and Port Kimble are eagerly looking for more work why has there been no
comparative assessment of all NSW ports? This is a major State development
which should not be allowed to go ahead and the Greens will continue to oppose
it in every way we can.”
On Redfern issues
In her response she was quick to point out that Darlington and Redfern has just come into Marrickville.
Her comment was that, “I’ve got a really good understanding of Marrickville
because of my work on Council. I am learning about Redfern. The power of the
Minister for Redfern-Waterloo is a concern. We support the Aboriginal Housing
Company in their struggle for the Pemulwuy Project”.
Drugs policy
Fiona’s view is that, “Instead of throwing people into jail,
we need to give them support services – to help them see what will happen to
them if they proceed down that path. We support the expansion of the
self-injection room into other areas. I don’t think we should be writing policy
according to the Daily Telegraph.”
[South Sydney Herald November 2006]