Shoalhaven Greens have announced Carmel McCallum will join the race for the marginal seat of Gilmore.
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In her fifth federal campaign for the Greens, Mrs McCallum will line up against incumbent Gilmore MP Fiona Phillips and Liberal candidate Andrew Constance.
The Cambewarra resident said a lack of climate action and pushing for green jobs made up her decision to run.
"There's a lack of leadership and a total lack of mitigation on climate change about which they (the federal government) are not acting on," Mrs McCallum told the South Coast Register.
"As we've seen in the last two weeks (with floods), and with the bushfires, there are going to be so many people that are left homeless. There are still people that are homeless from the fires from over two years ago. And government funds are sitting there and not being used for mitigation or supporting communities.
"We need to look at all of those things and look at increasing renewable energy ... and other greener industries. We need to look at technological industries that we can actually up value.
"We've lost so many inventions in Australia that could have created industry here. We're still ignoring some of our best inventors, and not helping them get going and actually creating jobs and industry in Australia, which is green industry."
Mrs McCallum secured around 10 per cent of votes in both the 2016 and 2019 federal election for Gilmore.
After extreme weather events, she feels that more in the electorate will trust a Greens member to take action on climate change.
"We're in this to win," said Mrs McCallum.
"I've experienced enough to fight to win for the Greens. We've had such unprecedented weather and unprecedented issues.
"And an unprecedented vote for the Greens could make all the difference to the way Australia is tracking at the moment."
Mrs McCallum said she will also direct her focus towards fixing Gilmore's housing crisis, bringing more mental health services to the area and backing local road projects including a Nowra bypass.
Mrs McCallum is a qualified pharmacist with more than 40 years experience.
She moved to the Shoalhaven in 1978, to live first in Vincentia later in North Nowra and now in Cambewarra. Her husband Howard, who served in the Navy, received postings to California in 1985-87, and then later to the RAAF Headquarters in Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains in 1993, where the family lived for almost 20 years.
The McCallums returned to Cambewarra in 2012.
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