b_auspol

The Greens

 How to Vote: The Greens have listed three parties on their how to vote this year: 2 goes to Labor and 3 goes to Community Need Not Corporate Greed (Socialist Alliance). They do not rank the two right parties.

Photo comments: Their FB header is a lovely shot at Lake Parramatta from the bend opposite the swimming area! The group shot though is taken in front of some very generic trees, and I’d guess it might be up Epping way, from some other context clues? It’s a hard one.

Franceska Strano

Website: https://greensoncouncil.org.au/franceska-strano/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FranceskaStranoParramatta/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franceska.strano/ 

Franceska Strano seems to be a very hands on member of the local Greens chapter, which I find really encouraging, as while Phil Bradley is good at what he does, he definitely needs some younger support. And Strano is definitely a modern intersectional Greens candidate with interests in advocacy for “STEM, women in leadership, LGBTQIA+ rights, multiculturalism and racial equality”. Also good to see someone actually use the full acronym, thank you.

Strano is a civil engineer with experience in transport infrastructure, water resources and renewable energy. She is, if any, my PERFECT bait. She also likes gardening, cooking and kayaking on the Parramatta River, so I’m pretty sure I could get along with her just fine in person.

However the important thing here is policies.

Strano has done quite a lot of work with Save Willow Grove, which is not a surprise to literally anyone in the area, as the Greens have all be quite strident on Save Willow Grove and anti the current Powerhouse plans.

In terms of transport, she’s campaigning on improved public transport and infrastructure. There’s not a huge amount of detail here, but Strano is a Greens candidate, I’m happy to extrapolate this as “better footpaths, better bike lanes, better bus service timetables and get the light rail and metro built”. She was a supporter of the new Bayside Shuttlebus.

In terms of parks, “..and every child in Parramatta deserves a good park!” That’s a catchcry I’m happy with (and after lockdown, all the adults could use a good park too, why are all the kids hogging the good flying fox down at Parramatta Park). The Greens have been campaigning on natural grass not synthetic turf in the local park upgrades – apparently the new North Granville park upgrade is at risk of it on the oval.

Getting smarter about waste and the reduction of plastics: this is also linked to the “no fake grass” campaign but also the local Greens have a lot of park and waterway clean ups. This is not surprising. I can’t see a position on the new food waste bin trial but suspect that’s under “smarter about waste”.

There is also a line on making Council “open, ethical and transparent” and leaning into more resident groups for consultation with Council to give residents more voice.

She’s also involved with the set up of the Little Free Library that’s under the M4 and next to the bike path and rail crossing. It’s a really cute spot for it, and accessible to a bunch of local apartment buildings.

I think Council needs a civil engineer who knows about infrastructure and particularly a climate friendly engineer with that skillset. It’s some excellent hands on knowledge.

I do however want to note that it appears that Strano lives outside the ward – her registration paperwork gives her enrolled address at Baulkham Hills. Only a teeny bit of Baulkham Hills even falls into Parramatta Council itself, and that’s in North Rocks Ward.

David Schwartz

David Schwartz works in IT, with a fairly varied skillset from what he’s listed in his candidacy documents. He’s fairly active about local Greens campaigns, including climate legislation, privatisation, lots of community petitions and the like.

He believes in “community led initiatives” and “sustainable development practices”, so yes, normal Greens areas.

Also he’s part of one of the local D&D groups and given I suspect I know which one, I’m honestly astonished there’s nothing in here about better room hire at the new Library and in other spaces for community groups. (It’s a problem! There is definitely a shortage of rooms). If he was actually in a more winnable spot on the ticket I might bother asking.

Schwartz does live in the ward.

Susan Xiao Hong Chen

Susan Chen lives in Parramatta, is very active on the Parramatta Greens Facebook page, but her account is locked. That’s about all I’ve been able to get. A perfect third candidate of the “fill out the list” variety.

 

Overall opinion:

Phil Bradley has done quite a lot of good work with the current Labor team on Council. I’m actually really enthusiastic about Franceska Strano and think she brings a useful skillset and is at that “just really needs the next step of actual work as a politician”.