Owner of the popular Boobooks store in the Armidale Mall and former nurse Yvonne Langenberg has been endorsed by the Labor Party as their candidate for the Northern Tablelands in the upcoming election.
An Armidale resident for 11 years now, Ms Langenberg says she has social and economic growth for our communities at the forefront of her mind.
“I believe that the Northern Tablelands’ communities deserve the same opportunities as those in metropolitan areas – whether it be accessing health services, quality primary and secondary public education, or good roads”.
“I care about the social and economic growth in our communities – the need to encourage small and medium sized businesses, especially manufacturing, to set up here to widen and deepen our local economy, the importance of social services, an active Arts community, and a place where everyone is welcomed”.
Ms Langeberg said it was her disappointment in the decline in health services for those in rural areas including the Northern Tablelands which primarily led her to join the Labor Party.
“I was a registered nurse for 35 years, specialising in intensive care and understand that it is staff that make a hospital, not a building”.
Ms Langenberg previously ran for the Labor Party in the 2019 federal election as the candidate for New England.
The announcement comes as the Labor Party unveiled a policy to appoint a Deputy Secretary for Rural Health who is accountable for implementing all recommendations from the rural health inquiry and will be tasked with driving reform and improving the health outcomes for rural and remote communities across NSW.
Labor candidate for Tamworth, Kate McGrath, who was a member of the Gunnedah community Roundtable giving evidence to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into regional health in 2020, was critical of the Government for failing to implement the 44 recommendations of the inquiry.
“In 2020 our community told the Upper House Inquiry into Rural and Regional Health Outcomes how dire our situation had become; three years later only NSW Labor have committed to implementing all recommendations of the inquiry.”
“After twelve years of neglect, it’s clear, only a Minns Labor government have a plan to repair our regional and rural healthcare services,” she said.
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