This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

“Each Australia Day is like pressing on a bruise for Indigenous people – and the bruise gets darker,” said Susan Moylan-Coombs, as she launched her campaign to take the federal seat of Warringah from the former prime minister Tony Abbott.

“My message is this: come on Australia we can do better than this. We need to have a discusion with calm and reason,” she said.

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An Indigenous woman, the grandchild of Labor legend HC “Nugget” Coombs, a resident of Warringah for 50 years, Moylan-Coombs is not shy about wading in on one of the contentious issues de jour: the date for Australia Day.

It might not be front-of-mind for many of the well-off voters of Warringah, but Moylan Coombs is running on a platform that takes in local issues and a strong stance on Indigenous reconcilliation.

Moylan-Coombs is the first independent out of the blocks in Warringah, though there will likely be another, backed by a group, Voices of Warringah, which includes a number of disaffected Liberal party members.

“Why don’t we want to heal the trauma? Every Australia Day we have this discussion, but like groundhog day, we don’t resolve it. I would like to hear the talk turned around. I believe that a likely change of government in 2019, is a chance to shine a light on the trauma and the impacts it has on Indigenous people.” she said.

Her candidacy will likely push Indigenous issues to the fore during the forthcoming federal campaign especially as Abbott is the Morrion government’s special envoy on Indigenous affairs.

Moylan-Coombs points out her electorate’s longstanding place in Indigenous history. Federation Point at Manly was where a group of curious Aboriginal men welcomed Captain Arthur Philip of the first fleet and, impressed by their physiques, Philip chose to name the place Manly.

In contrast, she pointed out that Australia Day only became a national holiday in 1994.

Moylan-Coombs said she had been criticised for being “not right enough, not left enough, not white enough,”. She said people had suggested that she was only doing it for the money.

But she said she had a clear agenda to bring a different style of politics to Warringah: one where debate was respectful and well informed.

“Party politics has failed Warringah. The party that represents this seat, has stopped listening to the people. They are in a policy death spiral,” she said

“As your independent MP I would have the ability to agitate for this electorate’s needs,” she said. “No matter how you look at it, having me as an independent, would be better for Warringah.”

Among her priorities are pushing for greater renewable power and making Manly a solar hub for research and development.

She also promised a different approach to growth, where policies were assessed not just by their economic impacts but by their environmental and social impacts.

“Our obsession about GDP is destroying us,” she said. “It is an insufficient measure of progress. Until we start properly analysing environmental and social impacts of this system, it can only be flawed.”

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She said her grandfather, who served as the minister for postwar reconstruction, had been an economist but was a humanist at his core.

Moylan-Coombs said she had not yet decided how she would direct preferences.

Her campaign is being backed by former 60 Minutes broadcaster, Jeff McMullen, the Mosman mayor Carolyn Corrigan and the former North Sydney mayor Genia McCaffery.

“What is the point of voting for yesterday, when we need to look for the future,” McMullen said of Abbott.