Greens candidate for Parkes

Ms Frail is a Ngemba woman born and bred in Brewarrina. She has local government experience as a councillor at Brewarrina Shire Council as well as running a cafe serving healthy food with a native twist.

Ms Frail says the issues she is campaigning on will be as follows.

Health:

Ms Frail knows dental health can be a major issue in western NSW and as part of the Greens party policy she wants dental health to be covered under Medicare. She knows of many who have to go to the hospital because they can’t afford a dentist and struggle with their teeth.

“We do need oral health under Medicare,” she says.

She also wants to help make sure little communities like Goodooga aren’t left without any doctors in town. Ms Frail knows lack of transportation often means people can’t travel to another town to see a doctor so “they just stay and suffer in pain”.

Women and family:

Ms Frail wants to do more to help tackle issues of domestic violence, as well as the discrimination against women in employment. Ms Frail says women earn 14 per cent less than men in the same field.

“We work as hard as the men, then we go home and we continue to work for love.”

Climate change:

Ms Frail says the fact that the country has been through “the most horrific drought and now these floods” all relate back to issues of climate. She believes we need to transition towards an economy centred around renewable energy.

While she knows people care about the jobs in fossil fuel industries, she wants to emphasise that “there are the same amount of jobs in renewable energy. You just have to start working towards it”. She wants to work with communities, businesses, and homes to help them in the transition to renewable energy.

Businesses:

Ms Frail says supporting local businesses is key to keeping people in regional areas and local shires operating. She wants to help locals explore ways to start their own businesses or if already open, stay in business. With her own cafe she not only uses native foods but has also expanded to selling the artwork, soaps and candles of different local women.

Social justice for First Nations:

Ms Frail says deaths in custody need to be addressed. She says royal commission recommendations are still being totally disregarded. She says we need to work out how can we overcome services and police from disregarding First Nations people when they have them in custody.

Housing:

Ms Frail believes “we need houses to be built suitable for the climate and suitable for the region”. She doesn’t want to see houses which might be suitable for Sydney being built in the area, only to fall apart in ten years.

She wants to make sure there is also enough housing for everyone in the regions. She highlights housing is an interrelated issue with domestic violence as she says often victims of domestic violence will stay where they are because there’s nowhere for them to go.

Ms Frail says she wants change for Parkes. “I’m here for everybody,” she said.