Vote 1 Jane Ward

A True Community Independent for Sydney

Voting Day : Saturday, November 24 2007

About Jane Ward

I was born in Adelaide and grew up in Port Lincoln. I have a twin brother and an older sister. My dad was a mechanic and my mum an infant teacher. We had a happy life, but even as a young child, I felt distressed and helpless over the extreme poverty and marginalisation of aboriginal people. That began a life-long passion to support indigenous self-determination and to oppose racism in any way I can.

I attended State schools and graduated in l965 with an Honours degree in History and a four year Diploma of Secondary Teaching. To go to University I was bonded to the Education Department, teaching for one of three years, then taking five years to pay back a large debt. This underlies my strong opposition to saddling young Australians with the current HECS fees.

A further family experience that relates to my present policy is that my parents, who paid taxes all their lives, were deemed not eligible for aged accommodation in their home town and we had to move them interstate, where they died too soon. I learned then how important it is to allow aged people to live out their lives in familiar surroundings.

I have lived in South Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, and in Balmain since l973, raising three children, participating in community life and campaigning for human rights, multiculturalism, Aboriginal self-determination, affordable housing and health services, Australian arts and culture, open space, facilities for children, the disabled and the elderly, proper planning, pollution control, heritage protection, public transport, and the fair treatment of all residents.

Frustration over the stagnation of social justice and disillusionment with the low standard of debate and political conduct in Australia have led me to stand as an Independent in local and state elections, and now for the federal seat of Sydney.