STATE ELECTION 26 NOVEMBER
CHANGE THE GAME
Only a real independent with the right experience can change the game for you.
SALLY’S OFFER
Our democracy is half gone…
Decisions about our lives, what our taxes are used for, including how much is left over for our basic services, are being made by a very, very few at the cost of almost everyone else.
We pay more than 50 per cent more for the costs of life than we otherwise would* because of the corruption of our political system by well-connected individuals who have rigged our corporate and political system.
We would be twice as wealthy if we could fix it.
And our State would finally be able to afford a proper level of our basic services in Brighton and beyond.
Sally is offering to show a way to stop the chronic corruption of our democracy: the pork barrelling, the deals, the commercial-in-confidence contracts signed by people using our billions on enormous projects of arguable urgency; the rorts, the waste, the excess, the cronyism.
The ‘grey gifts’, which are really our assets, such as rezoned land from industrial to residential, benefit only a few.
This behaviour is not necessarily illegal and, in fact, entirely natural. Humans are wired to help their friends; it’s a normal instinct which keeps the tribe alive. But when it involves our hard-earned, and we don’t benefit —or worse, it costs us—major problems arise.
We lose our form of government, our democracy. And some groups stuck in the middle of the two big party poles, like small business, totally miss out.
There are ways to intercept the corruption which we have allowed to grow under our very noses because we have been distracted. We were busy: the pandemic, footy, celebrities, Tik Tok.
But, over the past five years, while we weren’t looking, the games of you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-give-you-a-massage prevailed.
It’s time to Change the Game.
Solutions have been tried overseas with success and involve using neutral parties - panels of randomly selected, ordinary citizens and, sometimes, overseas experts — to help make the big decisions; such as who gets the top jobs and which projects get funded.
Solutions also involve putting a price on the ‘grey gifts’ for those who will benefit.
Many of these proposals have worked very well for countries with the courage to try them: Switzerland, China, Finland and parts of the USA.
Sally is ready to start changing the game so the people of Brighton —Elwood, Brighton and Hampton —and beyond don’t have to run around trying to prop up the basic services we should be able to afford hands down.
The childcare, healthcare, policing, education, aged care, public transport, women’s safety. The list goes on and on and, to top of it, for our special Bayside community, must be the infrastructure to offset looming rising seas due to climate change.
If we can interrupt this system with sensible solutions, we can live our lives more efficiently, safely and securely.
Sally asks you to help her reclaim our democracy by Changing the Game.
Join her!
*Cameron K. Murray and Paul Frijters, Rigged: How Networks of Powerful Mates Rip Off Everyday Australians, Allen & Unwin, 2022, p. 14.
Elwood Children’s Centre is fighting for its survival—again. The games compromise basic services.
SALLY’s background
Deep links in Brighton
Deep links in Brighton
Deep links in Brighton
- great grandparents reared their family in Gardenvale
- parents reared their children in E. Brighton & Brighton
- schooled at Star of the Sea, Gardenvale; siblings at St Finbars & Brighton Grammar
- reared her family in Elwood
- Sally’s mother campaigned to get trucks off the beach road
Fights for Community
Deep links in Brighton
Deep links in Brighton
- helped drive campaign for federal government to fund childcare, '88
- helped drive campaign to limit heights in Ormond Rd., Elwood
- board member, Elwood Community Bank
- President, Elwood Children’s Centre
- volunteer, first foreshore plantings, '80s
- Member, Elsternwick Park Nature Reserve Assn.
Active on climate change
Practices integrity & honesty
Practices integrity & honesty
- Delegate, 26th UN Conference of Parties, Madrid, 2019 and Side Conference, Katowice, Poland, 2018
- Delegate, OECD Green Growth Conference, Paris, 2018 & 2019
- editor/publisher of a handbook on the international climate change regime, 2019
- key operative in State Government environment bodies; former ministerial press secretary
- member, inaugural Sustainable Development Reference Group, City of Port Phillip
Practices integrity & honesty
Practices integrity & honesty
Practices integrity & honesty
- not a ‘career politician'; never joined a political party
- as public servant for 27 years, always maximised taxpayers’ investment & avoided waste
- transparent & honest in government media roles to help solve the problems
- welcomed an asylum seeker into her family
- pro bono advocate for people with a disability & mental illness
- reported abuse in aged care - with results
SALLY’S experience
government
- extensive experience in strategic roles in the Victorian Public Service in: environment, energy, agriculture, women’s affairs, aboriginal affairs, public transport, urban development, ports, infrastructure, major projects, education, disability & mental health
- worked in small statutory bodies to very large departments as well as the Premier’s Office
- deep understanding of how government works, doesn’t work, should work & could work
- political scientist (UniMelb)
- former staff journalist for all key Victorian newspapers including for political matters.
Small business
- grew up through the ‘tough years’ of a successful small business in Brighton
- first visited China on a buying trip for Gibson Importing, 1977
- founding member, China Chamber of Commerce Victoria, 1987
- consultant tender writer & marketer for small business
- experienced regional real estate investor
SOCIAL JUSTICE CHANGE AGENT
- helped radically change oversight systems for Victorians with a disability & mental illness: Communications professional of the Public Advocate‘s office 2006-22
- torpedoed mental health workplace stigma: co-convenor of a voluntary organisation for consumers & carers in the Victorian Public Service, stimulating private sector workplace programs
- drove support for mental health carers as board member of Tandem mental health carers & establishment of quality systems at Mind Australia.
Photo Gallery
The needs of younger people are always central to Sally’s life. She shares her house with young students at different stages of their education.
Sally comes from a strong social justice background. Here, her parents meet Cambodian villagers after donating them land to grow their own food.
Sally’s parents built their first home in 1955 in E. Brighton on £5 a week. Due to the games, the dream of a local house eludes many of our children.