Sustainable Australia candidate for the seat of Port Macquarie Jan Burgess hopes to help the party make a real change to the state's political landscape.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The party's policies resonate with Ms Burgess who grew up in the UK and moved to Perth in the early 1970s where she attended university.
She worked for IT companies for the next 40 years, mainly in Perth, but including time in northern Queensland and Melbourne before discovering Port Macquarie in 2006.
Ms Burgess and her partner live in Lake Cathie.
The retiree is a member of Lake Cathie-Bonny Hills Lions Club.
Ms Burgess said like many people, she had become disillusioned with the major political parties.
She said Sustainable Australia was a party of the political centre.
"Unlike many of the minor parties, it's not just a single issue party," Ms Burgess said about Sustainable Australia.
"It has workable common sense policies for a huge range of things.
"We are looking for a sustainable environment and better planning to stop overdevelopment, which means returning powers to the communities.
"We are looking for affordable housing for both first home buyers and renters and we are looking to endeavour to diversify the economy to secure jobs in regional areas."
Ms Burgess said to that end, Sustainable Australia looked to reduce population growth, as with huge population growth, it was impossible to be sustainable.
She said it would be wonderful to be elected, however her main purpose for standing in the election was to present Sustainable Australia as a party and its policies to the people of the Port Macquarie electorate.
Sustainable Australia is described as an independent party from the common sense political centre, with a positive agenda to secure an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable Australia.
Being a state election candidate, Ms Burgess said, gave her a platform to share policies she believed in.
She cited infrastructure development and planning as among the big issues facing the Port Macquarie electorate.
Sustainable Australia founder and lead upper house candidate William Bourke said Ms Burgess was the party's trailblazer in Port Macquarie.
The other candidates contesting the seat of Port Macquarie are Peter Alley (Country Labor), Leslie Williams (The Nationals) and Drusi Megget (The Greens).