By Renee Wood
Catslemaine resident Cate Sinclair will be the first on the ballot box to represent The Greens as their Lead Northern Region Candidate for the Upper House.
The northern victorian representative will look over a vast area as far as Mildura right down through to Healesville and Warburton.
Dr Sinclair said although it’s a vast area the key issues in need of addressing run parallel such as housing, mental health and building stronger communities.
“That starts with secure housing for people and also looking at cost of living and wages, particularly for women working in the community sectors, I think a really important aspect of caring for families is making sure that people have a living wage and that’s something that hasn’t been maintained,” Dr Sinclair said
Dr Sinclair said rents skyrocketing, holiday rentals, and an influx of city residents to these areas have affected the property market.
“We’ve got people who are living in tents and have no access to housing at all. And that’s right throughout the northern region, but also in the city.”
If elected, these are the key issues Dr Sinclair would lobby for as well as climate action and concerns of logging.
“Logging is something that’s really important for the areas in around Healesville as well and Warburton… logging is an issue that’s very important to a lot of local people and we need to stop logging by 2023.”
The candidate has worked as a health clinician for over 30 years and is also a health researcher.
After seeing a rise in children and adolescent distress and mental health conditions, Dr Sinclair wanted to do something more broadly to prevent some of the conditions affecting children, which led her aspiration in representing the community in the state government.
Dr Sinclair said her values strongly align with the Greens’ policies as someone who’s always been very passionate about the environment and is concerned that climate action.
“We need to preserve our natural environment and live with it rather than using it as a resource.”
Locals can meet with Dr Sinclair at the Tall Trees Festival in Wesburn on Friday 21 October.
