Independent candidate for Bean, Jessie Price, got a lending hand for her campaign from Rockwiz host Julia Zemiro. Photo: Region.
Independent candidate for the federal seat of Bean, Jessie Price, added some celebrity star power to her campaign on Sunday (6 April) when Rockwiz host Julia Zemiro led a community rally at Weston Creek.
A star of the whacky Australian comedy Fisk, Zemiro facilitated a town hall-style gathering attended by a couple of hundred supporters and curious voters.
The Sydney-based actor-comedian opened the event by telling the crowd she had become eager to help community-based independents who are serious about effecting political change for the better.
“Look, you might be thinking, ‘Julia, what the hell are you doing here? You don’t live in the area, you’ve just lobbed in, what’s the story?’” she said to much laughter.
“And I would say, ‘correct’!
“But I too have been looking for something to make me feel less angry and less frightened and less nervous.
“If action is the antidote for despair, then volunteering is what a lot of you are doing today, and this is my way of volunteering.”
Ms Price said she was delighted with the attendance and added her mantra that unless ordinary people step up, politics will never change.
“We could be overtaken with anxiety, and we could look at our current politics and be filled with total despair, but instead, we have come together and are focussed on a clear plan of action,” she said
“We’re here, we’re doing it, we’re standing up … and we’re going for it.”
The former journalist and midwife said she wants to be part of a different kind of politics that “truly is” for the people and the community and not for the major parties and vested interests.
She is campaigning for action on the cost of living, climate change, housing affordability, and better investment in health and community projects.
Labor MP David Smith holds Bean with a healthy margin of 12.9 per cent, but Climate 200, which has helped fund Ms Price, says its polling puts the independent in prime position to topple him at this election.
ACT Independent Senator David Pocock also spoke at the rally, starting his comments with the call “south-siders really know how to bring it” as he looked out to sea of orange t-shirts (Ms Price’s campaign colour).
He stressed the influence independents have in negotiation with the government, and even said Labor’s commitment (announced earlier that same day) to invest in a new convention centre for Canberra would not have been made without independent pressure.
“The thing I’ve seen over the last three years is the power of independent representatives – both in the Lower House and in the Senate,” Senator Pocock said.
“Having people who are accountable to their communities, who are committed to being accessible and to listening, and who are committed to actually building better services … we are continually saying ‘look after our community.”
