Wiradjuri and Badu Island woman Lynda-June Coe has been preselected as a Greens candidate for the NSW Upper House in the State Election to be held in March 2023.
Coe will be in third place on the Greens ticket after sitting Upper House MP Cate Faehrmann and Albury GP Dr Amanda Cohn who was Deputy Mayor of Albury for five years. Unionist and social activist Jim Casey will be in fourth position.
“The possibility of a First Nations voice to be elected into the NSW Upper House is one step closer towards achieving social justice for our mob,” she said. With three sitting MPs, it is possible that the Greens could win three spots.
Coe hopes to leverage past activism experience in the role, including leading and co-organising national Indigenous campaigns such as ‘Water is Life’ Climate Action, Black Lives Matter, Stop Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Stop Forced Removals of Children, Youth Incarceration, and Invasion Day rallies.
Coe has stated that First Nations issues are “fundamentally all that encompass the political philosophy and principles of the NSW Greens.”
She has stated that the policy areas she is “most passionate about” include climate change, domestic and family violence, children and young people, and First Nations people.
The Greens candidates for the Upper House in next year’s state election: Cate Faehrmann (top left), Dr Amanda Cohn (top right), Lynda-June Coe (bottom left) and Jim Casey (bottom right). Photo: Dr Amanda Cohn – Greens/Facebook
She has attributed First Nations representation in leadership as “fundamental” to achieving equity for First Nations communities. If elected, she will be the first First- Nations woman in the NSW Upper House.
She said that the Greens’ policy focuses on “embracing the hard work that needs to be done, that other parties [have failed to do]”. This includes implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal deaths in custody and recognising unceded sovereignty as the basis for achieving self-determination, which Coe says, “fundamentally ensures a process for decolonisation.”
In her pre-selection speech, Coe has pledged that she will “fight for those living on the poverty line…to see parenting equity to those who are struggling the most in our communities”, citing lived experience as someone “born into poverty [who has] experienced all the social disparities of being an Indigenous woman.”
Speaking about climate change, Coe hopes to see a “climate justice movement” backed by both Western science and Indigenous knowledge. She has stated that she will “push for a coal and gas free state, and a complete shift to renewable and sustainable energy.”
“We must learn to live with nature as First Nations have always done”, she added.
“It is time to put a First Nations Vote into Parliament. It is time to put a First Nations women educator and activist into Parliament. It is time to put a First Nations woman who has lived experience and a history of empowering our most disadvantaged into Parliament,” she said.
