WAMINDA - You need to meet these fantastic women

Its about time you met Waminda - based on the South Coast for over 30 years they are an Aboriginal womens helath and welface organisation. Deeply respected by many for the fantastic work they do across so many spheres. Last week I experience one of the cultural immersion days that they offer and it was deeply impactful and I highly recommend this day for all who want to be better allies. One of the programs that Waminda are working hard to get funding and a home for right now is the Birthing on Country Program, which supports Aboriginal women through the process of pregnancy, birth and early years , thorugh a wholistic and wrap around service point of view. Waminda have worked hard at this program where it has been recognised as a high standard model of care for women. Dont take my word for it though, go see for your self at the Waminda website. During the recent federal election it was great to see that there were pledges of financial support for Waminda's program and the clock is ticking to find some land or a building to repupose for the birthing and services home. I brought to council a Mayoral Minute pledging support for the project to allow for our startegic planning staff to work with Waminda to try and find land and to reach out to landholders jointly to see if we can push for a better outcome. One such landholder in Nowra is Woolworths of Fabcott Pty Ltd who own a number of useful parcels of land, which have been landbanked for no real puprose for many years now. Whats seriously annoying is that Fabcott dont reply to our letters asking for their consideration for a sale. So that makes me wonder - which supperannuation companies, what locals, or any other investor live in the Shoalhaven and would be prepared to contact them and get them to understand that instead of making grand statements they can actually do something ral and sell their land for a grand purpose. Please check out Wamindas webiste

Life long learning - keeping up with the politics

I love being a life long learner. Yesterday I got a great lesson on TERF's.

 ( Wait the explanation is coming if you too were unfamiliar with the term. )

This came about as I got asked "would I let radical feminists remain in the party if they disagreed with TRANS rights ? "

It was in a forum situation with a limited time to respond. I am not transphobic. I am familiar with and empathetic to those  compelled to undertake gender re-orientation. This takes courage and determination. I celebrate the diversity of humanity, and I believe that my party is a party of inclusion. But expelling people from the party for their views on trans politics: now that threw me a very unexpected curved ball.

 I had blundered into unfamiliar territory. I'm grateful for the first aid that was administered as members of The Greens quickly leapt in to give me a rapid introduction about the TERF Wars!! Thanks to Evan, Jordanna, and Erin my eyes were firmly opened by the end of the day. 

TERF (/ˈtɜːrf/) is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. First recorded in 2008,^[1] the term originally applied to the minority^[2] of feminists espousing sentiments that other feminists considered transphobic, such as the rejection of the assertion that trans women are women, the exclusion of trans women from women's spaces, and opposition to transgender rights legislation. The meaning has since expanded to refer more broadly to people with trans-exclusionary views who may have no involvement with radical feminism. Wikipedia

Whilst dealing with extreme natural disasters in my community for the past three years I had missed that our trans people were suffering at the hands of an organised movement wanting to exclude them. 

Now that I have been educated into what a TERF really is - my answer would be unequivocally NO.  I wouldn't support racists, or homophobes, or disability discriminators to take away humans rights from minority groups. I would not support the suppression of trans rights in the Greens by anyone.

When we uphold human rights and support people, we will end up with a much better party.

Huskisson Church - A New Chapter?

 Today was a monumental milestone in the campaign to Save the Huskisson Church - today the developer formally withdrew their Planning Proposal! The happy sounds could be heard across the bay, from this small group of happy locals gathered at the site. Check out their joy! Congratulations to all - so many stalwarts that have turned up week in week out to keep the profile of this campaign in the communities hearts and minds.

The Huskisson Heritage Association has been campaigning long and hard for the preservation of the little Blackett Church at Huskisson. Alongside the Jerrinja Land Council have been battling to preserve Aboriginal Graves that have also been noted on the site including that of King Bud Billy.

Saving it from what? I hear some say, but seriously most people around here know the story of the take over of the church site by the local publican and the consortium who want to build a hotel and conference center on what is considered by the locals as a precious piece of land.

I'm not going to repeat the long story of the campaign you can find out more about that by following the links provided below.

With the change of Council there has been a majority change of attitude towards what should be done at this beautiful site and the Greens on Council certainly haven't supported the direction the developer was taking.

Earlier this year with our Labor Colleagues we Greens said no to scraping the ground for graves - we believe the stories of the elders and value the oral history of the Jerrinja people. We saw for our own eyes the scar on the tree, and we have read the shared history of the site.

Today the news that the developer has withdrawn the planning proposal is a relief and mostly closes the current chapter. It also leave us wonder what the future will be - who actually owns the land - and could it be bought by the Aboriginal Land and Sea Corporation?

That's the thing with chnaging chapters - there are more parts of the story yet to write - but for now this is a win for the community and hopefully a signal for good things to come.

More reading see these links.

Huskisson Heritage Association

Save Husky Church Facebook Page 

The New Bush Telegraph 

Shoalhaven Council Planning Proposal Page 

Jerrinja Land Council Facebook Page 

Meanwhile Use of Land - an interim step to assist with housing shortages?

 I have been pursuing the issue of affordable housing pretty much for the entire time I've been elected to Shoalhaven City Council ( 14 years at time of writing ) - every angle that I can think of!

A recent meeting with another group of NSW State Gov bureaucrat's and I still feel like a hamster on the wheel!

                                                                Photo by Silje Roseneng on Unsplash

The Victorian government introduced meanwhile use in their state - and I think it could be a game changer in NSW for the housing continuum. 

So meanwhile use looks at land or buildings held by government for a future reason to be used today for housing in a temporary way. The Shoalhaven land that came immediately to mind was that owned by Transport for NSW in road corridors. Land that already has buried infrastructure like water, power and communications and could quickly support portable homes that can be removed when its time for the land to be used for the purpose its been held for- like highway upgrades.

Meanwhile use gives us immediate access to land while we move to a longer term solution. One of the long term solutions I have been pushing for in the Shoalhaven is the redevelopment of our existing social housing stock. Like many places the housing stock owned by the NSW Gov is in poor condition. Many of the homes around Nowra are asbestos with no insulation, poor condition and on larger blocks of land that could be amalgamated into medium density sites. Medium density in the Shoalhaven looks more like 3//4/5 story small apartment blocks rather than larger towers that our city counterparts might experience. These older homes were built in the late 60's and early 70s- we also have a number of old style Defence Housing of a similar vintage.

Once the meanwhile use has occurred it drives the urgency to solve the future of those living in the zone. 

I recall a conversation with then Minister for Water, Property and Housing Melinda Pavey who found the prospect of meanwhile use so abhorrent that I was taken aback with the vehemence of her verbal response which of course was followed up with a thanks,  no thanks letter!

In 2021 I though we were making some headway on meanwhile use as the NSW Government had considered Wollongong as a pilot place and were looking to write up a position paper on guidelines. Of course the whole thing was shelved with a change in premier and its back to badgering for some redevelopment of the housing stock.

The recalcitrance of the State Gov to deal with improved social housing conditions for the Shoalhaven is just appalling - it such a win on so many levels - but most importantly it would be a win for our people. 

A modest 10 year plan would make a huge difference for our people - it could reduce the costs to run the households, improve the residents health and wellbeing outcomes and reduce carbon pollution by integrating renewable energy. As we start to move into another election period we need to keep the heat on for housing investment for the Shoalhaven and beyond.

More Reading:

Unlocking public assets will help meet housing needs 

Repairing Australia's Affordable Housing Crisis 

Finding community amidst NSW climate and housing emergencies.