Lyn Shumack: Lead Senate Candidate
DEEP PERSONAL INSIGHT, A FIGHTER'S SPIRIT AND A FIERCE BELIEF IN FULL DEMOCRACY
Website: http://www.lynshumack.org/
Email: Lyn.Shumack@nsw.democrats.org.au
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Phone: (02) 9979 9080
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State Election 2007 Launch WAG Rally 2007 Pittwater 2007 State Election Muslim Women's Welfare Association Page 1 Page 2
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There are three particular aspects of my life and personal beliefs which I think have given me the experience, ability and strength required for federal politics.
As a clinical and forensic psychologist, I have a special insight into much of the behavioural and psychological complexity that makes people tick -- an invaluable strength in the political arena. Secondly, my record as a fighter for mental health reform, in New South Wales and nationally -- including being a former chair of the Australian Psychological Society in NSW -- have given me the cut-and-thrust experience of political strategy, negotiation and debate.
Thirdly, I have always been instilled with a fierce belief in fully representative democracy, and it's the current decline of this vital principle over the past years of increasingly autocratic Coalition rule that's made me put myself forward as the Australian Democrats NSW candidate for the Senate. I was born in Cooma, NSW where my father worked for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electricity Scheme. I am the third daughter of four. Later my parents bought land near Tathra, on the far south coast of New South Wales, and started a Poll Hereford beef cattle farm. My father and his wife still live there.
After finishing high school I worked as a trainee nurse at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, then worked my way around Australia and the world before enrolling at university. I studied for my masters degree in psychology whilst working full-time as a systems analyst and IT project manager. During this time I developed interests in restoring antique furniture, native plants, photography and scuba-diving, and have continued to travel overseas when possible.
For the past few years I have run my own group practice in Mona Vale, meantime raising five children. About 10 years ago I became active in my professional society, and as elected chair of the (NSW State Committee) Australian Psychological Society I fought for reforms to allow access to all Australians to psychological treatment through Medicare rebates.
It was the Carr government’s reforms on common law matters, including civil liability, workers compensation and the motor accidents compensation, that particularly offended my sense of justice for all. Many of them went too far and specifically excluded psychological trauma (such as that suffered through serious accidents and criminal behaviour - like armed hold-ups) and, as a representative of the APS, I was often called on to lobby MPs in the NSW Parliament. This brought me into contact with like-minded people who wanted a better deal for injured, abused and mentally troubled people, as well as lobby groups and professional alliances who also work for the public good.
My political thinking has been influenced by my personal observation of how politics is conducted in Macquarie Street, but also my own ideological belief that wealth and power is only as good as the good it actually does, and that prosperity for the elite few often comes at the cost of others who don't enjoy the same access to a good education and good fortune. I joined the Australian Democrats because I care about health, social justice, sustainable development, and the increasing plight of small businesses in Australia. I care deeply, as we all do, about our environment, and deplore the way that the major parties have hijacked the climate change agenda to suit the big corporations that stand to lose or gain by it. The Democrats' stance on a wide variety of issues, their progressive ideas for service and electoral reform, and their caring for humanity and sustainability, also powerfully influenced my choice of political affiliation.
Like my fellow Democrats, I want governments to avoid the short-term and self-serving interests that impact on their decision-making and thwart progress toward caring for all their people, which is their primary task. I believe that governments too easily give up the hard decisions, fail to see the long-term consequences of what they do, and don't adequately scope a problem or plan in a strategic way.
They make expedient, self-serving decisions and lack courage, leadership and the capacity to deal with diversity in a constructive fashion. Their minds are often closed to progressive ideas, they steal policies from the minor parties rather than promote and provide opportunity for open, honest debate, and, as we've seen in recent months particularly, they engage in so much internal and rival bickering and mud-slinging that they cannot possibly perform their primary task -- to represent the interests, welfare and aspirations of all Australians.
I am representing the Australian Democrats because I believe I can contribute to a revival and new strengthening of democracy, justice and well-being in Australia, and help restore and revitalise the proud party which has protected and nurtured democracy for 27 years in the federal Senate and will do so again in the future.
Let's do it again. Let's "Bring Back the Balance."