Gosford MP Liesl Tesch outlines top priorities in inaugural parliament speech
SEVEN-time Paralympian Liesl Tesch has flagged education, jobs and infrastructure improvements for her Gosford electorate as her top priorities as she sets sail on a new political career.
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SEVEN-time Paralympian Liesl Tesch has flagged education, jobs and infrastructure improvements for her Gosford electorate as her top priorities as she sets sail on a new political career.
In her inaugural speech in NSW Parliament yesterday, the former high school teacher and Paralympics basketballer and sailor said she hoped to be a “catalyst for the positive change that the region is crying out for”.
“I believe my life experiences have given me the skills, resilience and vision to achieve this,” the Member for Gosford said.
“It is a top priority for me to make education and training financially accessible for the next generation to reduce their risk of being left behind. I’ll always champion the value of quality education and continue to fight to reinstate the jobs and training spaces that have been taken from young people in TAFE courses across NSW.
“We must increase the number of apprenticeships and support employers to adopt training policies that not just employ youth, but equip them with training for future innovation in Australia and the world.”
The ‘Wonder Woman of Woy Woy’ said she wanted Gosford to become “a thriving, energised business and social community … that people are proud to call home”.
“(A Labor government would) ensure the development of infrastructure, the safety of our waterways and quality, accessible healthcare,” Ms Tesch, the state’s first wheelchair-bound MP, said.
“The people of the Gosford electorate are not ‘Greater Sydney’ and as such the area needs development particular to our needs and identity, expanding on all that we already have to offer.
“We must be recognised and resourced as a region.”
She said every effort must be made to find young people more jobs.
“In one of my last lessons as a geography teacher (at Brisbane Water Secondary College’s Woy Woy campus), we discussed as a class the youth unemployment rate of the Gosford electorate, which currently stands at almost 17 per cent,” Ms Tesch said.
“A Year 10 student came to me at the end of the class remarking that, when taking those statistics into account, five kids in the class of 30 would not get a job. Not to mention, as a young Aboriginal man, (his) outlook for employment may even be statistically worse.
“These are sobering statistics and a reality that I hope to change.”
She said her early days in parliament had been “exciting”.
“As an active wheelchair user and incomplete paraplegic, I popped a wheelie to jump the single step into the chamber. Tres cool,” Ms Tesch said.
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