Tesch: 'Strong sense of belonging to the Peninsula'

The newly-elected Member for Gosford, Ms Liesl Tesch, said she had the strongest sense of belonging to a community when she was "home" on the Peninsula.

"To me this is home and this is where I belong and what I stand for," Ms Tesch said.

"I feel confident here because I have chosen to make this my home, I have that connectivity, and I have that web of community through being a teacher at Brisbane Water Secondary College.

"People that I knew through the school said they were so happy when they heard I was running because they knew what I stood for, and above all, through my involvement with disability advocacy internationally, that is about striving to get the best out of people and out of place," she said.

In terms of how she would describe the community of the Woy Woy Peninsula, Ms Tesch recalled that she was living in Paris, France, when she received the offer of employment as a teacher at Brisbane Water Secondary College.

"I was looking at Woy Woy on the map and I noticed that it was surrounded by water on three sides and I think that means we all know down here that we are united in that space because we are all together and surrounded by water and the rest of the Central Coast knows we are separate down here.

"People down here are very proud to say and to be known as being from the Peninsula," she said.

"Even older residents that I met along the way knew me because I taught their grandchildren or their neighbour's children, it has still got that sense of a small town," she said.

Ms Tesch decided to have lunch at Mary Mac's place in Woy Woy on Wednesday, April 12, "because I could and I want to look after the most vulnerable in our community.

"Mary Mac's is an amazing community resource.

"This is not about me. This is about me working with the community to deliver what it needs."

Ms Tesch said: "I believe it is my responsibility in opposition to work with the government and to put pressure on them in parliament to deliver the services the community needs."

She said she encouraged Peninsula residents to make use of the Services NSW "pop up" located in Deepwater Plaza at Woy Woy for a three-month trial.

"I would say use it as much as you can because the Liberal Government is monitoring how much the community uses it and we need to show them that over 15,000 locals want their own Services NSW centre on the Peninsula," she said.

Ms Tesch said the core issues that will remain her highest priorities until the NSW State election in 2019 would be health, education and training and jobs.

As for whether she believed the new Central Coast Council was too big and remote to service the Peninsula community, Ms Tesch said: "I think we are going to find it very hard to get service out of a council that has a geographical area bigger than Sydney; we will be fighting for resources across wards".

She said she would be doing her best to work with the new council was remained concerned about the costs of amalgamation and about the lack of action on many local issues due to the amalgamation and prolonged period of administration.

Ms Tesch said her electoral office would remain in Blackwall Rd in the premises occupied by Ms Kathy Smith.

SOURCE:

Interview, 12 Apr 2017

Liesl Tesch, Member for Gosford

Reporter: Jackie Pearson