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Canberra Today 12°/15° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Failing health system drives Helen’s return to politics

If elected, Helen pledges to push for a hospital that will accommodate a 300-bed wing, with a world-class research wing, funded by private enterprise and the government. This is a sponsored post.

FORMER Canberra Liberals’ shadow minister and independent Helen Cross has thrown her hat in the ring for the upcoming ACT Election as an independent for the seat of Yerrabi.

Helen Cross
Helen Cross… “The local MLAs don’t give a bugger about the state of our hospitals [but] I do, and I plan to do something about it.” Photo: Hilary Wardhaugh

“I might be the underdog but I know how to run a good campaign,” says Helen, who lives in Gungahlin with her husband David.

It’s a “no frills” campaign for Helen, who has run high-profile and costly campaigns in the past, but this time, health is a number one issue for her, and she says she wants to see a new hospital built in Canberra’s north.

Through dealing with her own health problems and recent hospitalisation, Helen says she’s spoken to people who are suffering in the ACT health system.

“We need research, more funding and a new hospital. I will not stand by and watch people suffer when I can do something to help,” she says.

If elected, Helen pledges to push for a hospital that will accommodate a 300-bed wing, with a world-class research wing, funded by private enterprise and the government.

As a former Liberal shadow minister, representing Molonglo in 2001, before resigning and remaining in the ACT Legislative Assembly as an independent in 2002, Helen says she was successful during her one term in the assembly.

Over those years she says she passed four landmark bills under her name, including an amendment to the “Discrimination Amandement Bill 2002”, which protected women during job interviews from being asked about things such as loans or if they intend on having children. 

Helen says she banned smoking in enclosed public places in 2003, she instigated a bill on asbestos in 2004 and, in the same year, introduced a bill protecting pharmacies from being taken over by supermarkets.

Also in that year, after unsuccessfully defending her seat in the 2004 election, Helen visited Aceh, Indonesia, to facilitate the building of an orphanage for the misplaced and orphaned children following the Boxing Day tsunami.

“I had lived in Indonesia for three years with David, who is a retired brigadier general, when he was Australia’s defence and army attaché with the Australian Embassy in Jakarta,” she says.

“My time there, equipped me to negotiate with senior Indonesian officials who were working with Youth Off The Streets (YOTS).

“The Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, was visiting Indonesia and I managed to get a photo op with him and the YOTS volunteers. This helped facilitate the accreditation process YOTS needed in order to have the orphanage built with the money raised in Australia.

“There is nothing more gratifying than helping children in any capacity.”

Helen Cross was the runner-up Miss Australia Charity Queen after raising the second highest amount of fundraising in Australia in 1983.

Fundraising has always been Helen’s wheelhouse – she was Miss NSW Charity Queen 1983, having raised the most amount of money for children with cerebral palsy in NSW for the then Spastic Centre of NSW, and runner-up Miss Australia Charity Queen having raised the second highest amount of fundraising in Australia.

“I used to go out to the Spastic Centre every week while I was an entrant, playing the piano and singing to the children. I loved it. I never thought I’d end up in a wheelchair myself,” says Helen, who was in an accident six years ago at a health retreat in the Philippines, which left her partially disabled and in a wheelchair.

“I had to stay there for six months as I was too injured to be transported back to Australia on a plane,” she says.

Helen also looks after her husband of 30 years, who has Alzheimer’s.

“I couldn’t run this campaign without his support,” she says.

“We’ve had to do it tough, and I’m grateful to the community nurses who have looked after us for the past three years. I struggle with all the medication I take and the weight gain they have caused, but there are many more people worse off than me and it doesn’t impact my ability to run as an Independent.”

Overall, when it comes to voting, Helen says: “Don’t put a tick, don’t put a cross, just put a ‘1’ in the box for Helen Cross.”

David and Helen Cross… “I couldn’t run this campaign without his support,” says Helen.

‘In a wheelchair and a husband with Alzheimer’s means I can advocate for the sick and disabled.’

AFTER seeing people suffering in the ACT healthcare system, Gungahlin’s Helen Cross made the decision to run as an independent candidate for Yerrabi in the ACT Election.

In this Q&A Helen Cross discusses her reasons for standing and why the ACT needs an independent voice such as hers.

Q: What is your main political issue for this election?

A: Health and improving our hospitals. The nurses at Calvary Hospital inspired me to run in this election and they asked me to do it for them.

My initial focus will be on paramedics. We have the best paramedics here in Canberra but there aren’t enough ambulances.

They try to get from one job to the next and it’s not their fault if they’re running from one end of town to the other because they’re one ambulance down. We need one more of these vehicles so that there is one in the north. We also need at least one extra bariatric ambulance with four staff.

I recently spent two months in Calvary Hospital and spoke to patients, their families and friends, nurses, doctors, paramedics and wardsmen, and saw first-hand the state of hospital equipment and the shortage of beds, which forces senior staff to push patients out too soon.

I was one of many patients who had to share one of two bariatric shower/toilet chairs between six floors. This is appalling and just the tip of the iceberg.

What other challenges do you experience in the health arena?

The NDIS is a mess. It was put together too quickly and should be dismantled and started again with qualified staff assessing claims for help. The same applies to Centrelink where the carers allowance is concerned.

There are thousands of couples around Australia who care for each other, as David and myself do, yet only one is entitled to the allowance. While the NDIS and Centrelink are federal issues they affect Canberrans and need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. I want to advocate to have these remedied.

What’s your priority in supporting people with disabilities?

Being in a wheelchair with several health complications and supporting my husband with Alzheimer’s means I understand and can advocate for the sick and disabled. Planning is crucial and I want to do it better than this current government.

The new hospital will require clever planning [and] needs to be northside. [My] vision is for it to be a city within a city, [something] that doesn’t look like a hospital. [It should be] a place which doesn’t make people sick with fear as soon as they get there, [and should have] beautiful gardens that patients can visit.

Clearly the local MLAs and federal members don’t give a bugger about the state of our hospitals [but] I do, and I plan to do something about it.

Disabled people are yet to be considered in all matters of planning in this city. Most people are kind and thoughtful, however, we have failed [people with disabilities] in the nation’s capital where we should be setting the example for the rest of the nation.

What other issues will you focus on?

Homeless children. It’s a major area where we’re not currently serving the best interests of the individual members of the community. We have a problem in Canberra and this issue was there when I was a member nearly 20 years ago.

When it comes to the best interests of the community, we have to start with children. I also want to work with Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services, to address the indigenous homelessness situation.

What is the most pressing issue in your electorate?

When door-knocking, helped by Bill Stefaniak wheeling me around, we realised the streets and cement pathways in Yerrabi are in a pathetic state. Broken, crooked, incomplete – they’re not wheelchair friendly, with too many steps and difficulties in accessing homes.

It is not a right, it’s a responsibility for those in political positions and bureaucrats to ensure all citizens have a right of way wherever they go.

We need to have a law that starts from now, [and it] should be that every residential and commercial development must be wheelchair friendly. We must be able to get a wheelchair to a front door. Not one house has a wheelchair accessible path.

It’s a basic urban service, a basic right that we pay high taxes for. It’s about time that people realised that there are a lot of people in wheelchairs in Canberra.

Belco Bill backs Helen

Belco Party leader Bill Stefaniak is delighted to see Helen running, and endorses her bid to form government saying: 

Belco Party leader Bill Stefaniak.

“Helen brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective as a disabled person to this election.

During Helen’s previous term in the assembly, there were a number of initiatives that she undertook, which became law and benefitted a lot of people in Canberra. [Alongside] people like [social justice campaigner] Bernie Banton, she fought for compensation and support for victims of asbestos-related dust diseases. I really appreciated the work she did in that area. Some really good things [came of that including some] good laws, which are still laws today.

She did all this in an assembly where there was a democrat holding the balance of power, and it was very well done – I was highly impressed by the work she did there.

It’s really important to have good independents in the assembly. It works best when there’s a minority government with a good mix of sensible independents, and Helen is a sensible independent.

Despite the fact that Helen’s had some rotten luck in recent years, she’s got a great story to tell, and she would bring a unique and different perspective to the assembly, were she to get in.”

Authorised by Helen Cross, an independent candidate for Yerrabi.

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