Jade Darko, a candidate for Franklin and a councillor for Clarence City Council, emphasizes the need for a council that listens to its constituents, acts transparently, and tackles pressing issues such as the housing crisis, the need for more community and green spaces, climate action, and improving the city's walkability and accessibility. Darko, a 32-year-old trans woman with over three decades of residency in Clarence, brings a background as a software engineer and a volunteer advocate for environmental and social justice.
Darko champions empathy, kindness, ethical consistency, and cooperation as guiding principles and seeks to represent these values in addressing the needs of Clarence. The campaign aims to bolster the Green presence within the council, steering development towards community needs rather than profit motives, focusing on sustainability, accessibility, and inclusivity.
Key promises include enhancing community consultation and council transparency, sensitive development that respects and improves recreational areas, ambitious environmental targets towards a net-zero council, and collaborative efforts for affordable, secure housing. Darko aspires to be a strong community and environmental advocate in the council, committed to making Clarence a vibrant, sustainable, and connected city.
The Australian Greens, identifying as a social democratic party under the leadership of Adam Bandt, adhere to four main pillars. Social justice, sustainability, grassroots democracy, and peace and non-violence, reflecting their alignment with global green politics.
They champion environmentalism through initiatives like recycling expansion, conservation, and a transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030 via a Green New Deal, which includes investment in renewable technology and Australian manufacturing for green energy solutions. Financially, they advocate for equitable taxation, opposing tax cuts favoring high income earners, promoting a wealth tax on billionaires, and supporting the creation of a publicly owned bank.
The Greens call for enhanced welfare policies, affordable housing, rent caps, increased income support, free public transport and childcare, and debt forgiveness for students. They support universal healthcare expansion, including dental and mental health, reproductive rights, drug law reform, and legal cannabis.
Socially, they push for marriage equality, asylum rights, and gender equality, alongside political reforms like donation caps and an anti-corruption watchdog. In agriculture, they emphasize animal welfare and climate resilience, opposing live exports in favor of ethical practices.
Their foreign policy advocates for independent and transparent international relations, and they support electoral reforms towards proportional representation.