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The Southern Highlands of NSW in the current electorate of Whitlam has been my home for 70 years. Although I was born on the Victorian side of the Murray River, my parents and their parents lived here in the Highlands.

My dad was a labourer, a farm hand and a darn right “salt of the earth, Aussie”. My mother raised eight children. I was the youngest and according to my siblings, “the most spoilt”.

I went to Mittagong Primary School then Bowral High School.

One of my first jobs was a teller at the Commonwealth Bank, Mittagong. This was back when it was still our publicly-owned bank.

I met my husband Mark, who is also local born and bred. We have now been married 51 years. We raised three children who still live locally or nearby, and who have given us nine grandchildren.

Together we established and operated a family-owned business locally for 38 years. We employed about 25 to 30 full time employees, many of whom worked for us for over 10 years and two of them for over 25 years. We must have done something right!  We sold this business in 2018 and are now retired—sort of—I seem to spend a lot of time volunteering with a local charity.

I have a vision of a better future for my grandchildren and all Aussie Mums and Dads and their children. Our youth have a bleak prospect. For over four decades we have voted in Liberal/National Coalition or Labor governments and they have not been there for the people of Australia. The major parties sold off our assets, our electricity, our gas, and our bank. They listen to non-elected foreign entities and write new laws without consulting the people. Big corporations and big banks have way too much power.

Currently, families are enslaved by debt; housing is unaffordable! How do you save a deposit for a $1 million dollar home?  Local rates are increasing (doubling in some cases); insurance premiums are increasing by 30 per cent or more; and our electricity and gas prices are through the roof. The only thing that is decreasing is our standard of living!

It is critical that we establish a publicly-owned Post Office Bank to provide accessible banking services for all Australians.  This public bank will provide funding for long term infrastructure and help with finance for housing. It will bring back economic growth to Australia.

I would ask you to look at what the Australian Citizens Party have quietly achieved in the past 36 years; educate yourself, and make your vote count, to help Australia regain her economic and national sovereignty. This is what our forefathers went off to war for. Have we forgotten so soon?