After nine years as the member for Werriwa, Anne Stanley, thoroughly recommends politics as a career to young people.
“We need people representing us for the right reasons – because they want to help people,’’ she tells the South West Voice during an interview earlier in the election campaign.
We’re in Phillips Park, in the heart of Lurnea, the suburb where Ms Stanley has lived all her life.
“It’s a great honour, to be elected to represent the people of Werriwa to the federal parliament; it’s not an honour I take lightly,’’ she says in response to a question about a fourth term in Canberra perhaps being her last.
“I am working very hard for a positive result on the third of May, and I will continue to work very hard the next three years on their behalf as well,’’ Ms Stanley said.
“I love this job, and it’s not just about roads and railways, sometimes it’s about helping someone from an overseas country come here because their grandmother died.
“It’s helping people who can’t navigate sometimes a really difficult system, because of age, because of education, and being able to explain to the constituent and to the department that’s trying to help them, what the problem is.
“It’s about having made a difference to someone.’’
While helping constituents with their problems is about 70 to 80 percent of an MP’s job, Ms Stanley points out that parliamentary committees are also very important, especially in promoting good policy on all areas of government.
“I’ve been on an education committee for example which had an enquiry into artificial intelligence and how that will change things.’’
For the past three years the member for Werriwa has also been government whip, another job that, she explains, is mostly about helping people, in this case other members of parliament
“It provides pastoral support, helping and encouraging MPs to do their best,’’ she says.
“I was helped when first elected in 2016 by people like Chris Hayes, offering sage advice and help when needed.
“Actually, lots of people, Anthony Albanese, Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen, have assisted me, and I am always grateful for their support.
“After nine years I know a lot of things I didn’t expect to know, it’s been an amazing experience,’’ Ms Stanley said.
Her election brochure says: “Actions speak louder than words”, and lists 125 things the member for Werriwa delivered in the last three years.
From upgrades to cricket pitches in the electorate to grants for around 30 local volunteer/sporting groups to “to make life easier for them’’, to the opening of urgent care clinics, it is quite a list.
“One of the things I am most proud of is the headspace at Edmondson Park,’’ says Ms Stanley.
“It is really doing well, seeing a lot of young people; it has provided support to a lot of people.
“It’s across the road from the railway station, which makes it very accessible for young people.’’
As for the next three years, Ms Stanley says she’s proud that the Albanese Government has chipped in half of the $1 billion upgrade of Fifteenth Ave, something she has worked hard to achieve over the years.
It’s the same for budget funding to buy the land needed for a railway line connecting South Western Sydney to the new airport.
Ms Stanley acknowledges that in an ideal world this rail connection would be coming on line when the airport opens late next.
“Should it have been done by now? Absolutely,’’ she says.
“And it’s not for want of lobbying from my behalf and [member for Macarthur] Mike Freelander.
“If you add up the number speeches we’ve made over the past nine years, it would be in triple figures.
“And we have been to every infrastructure minister since we’ve been elected [in 2016], and it is the current minister that has started making sure things are happening to link the airport to rail,’’ Ms Stanley said.
“We can only start where we are as a government, we’ve done business cases, made sure things stack up, M12, the duplication of Elizabeth Drive, goes into the airport, 14km of that finished – we’re getting on with the job.’’
