This episode our guest is Nicole Thompson who is the Greens Candidate for Wright in this federal election.
Nicole has been working as a Registered Nurse for 30 years and has also spent 20 of those years as a qualified Midwife in Australia. She’s worked in both Australia and the USA. This year, she has chosen to leave her job and concentrate full time on her role as a federal candidate, traveling around the Wright electorate and connecting with farmers, residents and community groups.
Nicole lives on Tamborine Mountain which is a small community where the town has no mains supply for water and no town sewerage system. Residents living there tend to have their own tank or bore water and live off-grid with roof-top solar and septic tanks for sewerage. The issues the residents face include being overdeveloped, and losing their water supply as some residents complain to Nicole that their personal bores are drying up.
Nicole says the loss of water from Tamborine Mountain is an issue they are facing while commercial giant Coca Cola is licensed to continue water mining in the area, without regard to the views of the residents. However, QUT is currently studying the effects of water-mining in the area to determine the level of what effect the water mining is having on the environment and the local community.
The electorate of Wright: It covers the Scenic Rim and Lockyer Valley down to the NSW border. With more suburban areas like Greenbank and Yarrabilba; where new developments are going in for housing but with the 2 lane road remaining going into the estate. There’s a lack of infrastructure and Planning!. Then there is the “Food Bowl” of Scenic Rim and Lockyer Valley. Used for Agriculture & agri-tourism. This area brings in $400 million Gross product per year.
Our discussion for Beyond the Rona this episode also covered:
- Water Rights & Water Licenses
- Health care in rural areas
- Staffing ratios especially in rural areas
- Poor Internet access: Digital Exclusion for Wright and the Scenic Rim
- Floods: Grantham, Lockyer Valley assistance
- Access to Mental health care in Wright, being rural and regional Queensland
- Domestic violence in the regions
An issue we didn’t cover was bushfire management. Nicole notes that the Greens support hazard reduction burns and have a policy on this available online (although many in the regions don’t have internet access in order to view it).
Nicole’s 3 Big Ideas:
- The need for safe Staff Ratios for Nurses and Midwives
- Mental Health into Medicare
- Behaviour Programs like Respectful Relationships in Schools, Codes of Conduct and hopefully all this leads to an ICAC
Beyond the Rona Podcast is recorded in Logan, Queensland on Yuggera country. We acknowledge the traditional owners past and present.