Elections > Federal Election 2007 > Candidates

Silma Ihram

Australian Democrats candidate for Reid

Candidate

Why I am standing

As a community activist in South West Sydney for more than 30 years I have been involved in solving problems by delivering solutions to various communities. However, I have constantly faced difficulties from the various levels of government and found politicians are often not willing to listen. To solve this problem has meant standing as a candidate for a party that is not bound to party politics and vested interests - the Australian Democrats, and being available to listen to the issues in the electorate and provide solutions that meet their needs even if they are not popular politically.

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Important issues in my electorate

Hospitals and schools- are in an appalling state in Reid and need urgent attention.
Roads and infrastructure - overcrowding without enough services
Dumps - stop the South West from being the commercial dumping ground of Sydney
Childcare - affordable and available - we need it now
Linwood Hall - our heritage sites should not be sold off for housing - they need to be managed better and made available to the community realistically

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Important policy documents

Integrated Diversity - a new view on recognising the diverse nature of our society and providing a platform to value this diversity and the meets of all its members.
Accountability in Government - the Dr. Haneef, Izhar ul Haque, Tony Tran etc. treatment of citizens and migrants, with the secrecy in government that threatens academics, journalists and bureaucrats must be accountable and transparent.
Climate Change - we must look at affordable realistic solutions to replace coal and oil fuel and training to help our farmers care for this fragile land.
Health - more nurses and doctors to be trained with better support and less long shifts. Stop the blame game.
Upskilling the workforce - Labor and Liberal are both promoting more Science and Maths education to solve IT illiteracy. Sorry, I'm a teacher - what we really need is for our professional blue collar, white collar and educational institutions to have adequate professional development to keep abreast of a rapidly changing environment.
Education - invest in better public schools, support poor private schools not rich ones, support our University students and build better Universities.
Compassion for the less privileged - stop the obscene bonuses to corporate fliers and bring back funding for dental health, mentally and physically disabled, the homeless, the elderly and real solutions for the indigenous.

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Contact Details

Other Candidates

* FERGUSON, Laurie - ALP
JOHNSON, Hal - CEC
LAMBERT, Veronica - FFP
LIPSCOMBE, Mark - GRN
OUEIK, Ronney - LP
SHARAH, Alex - CDP

* incumbent

Previous Elections

Silma has also been a candidate in the following elections:

New South Wales Election 2007