SWAN Hills Labor candidate Michelle Maynard says coming from a working-class family and seeing the impacts policies had on her life was where her own interest in politics began.

Ms Maynard told Echo News she aims to carry on Swan Hills Labor member Jess Shaw’s spirit of advocacy, hard-work, and community presence if given the opportunity.

“I’m yet to have a meeting where I’m with Jess or we’re meeting with someone about this where I’m not told I have very big shoes to fill, or whoever has the role has very big shoes to fill,” she said.

“What a great bar to set for the community to measure their candidates against – we’ve had this level of representation for the past eight years and it’s wonderful for the Swan Hills community to have such great representation.

“That obviously comes from her being so approachable being such a part of that community that people feel like they can approach her with their problems because she’s visible and she’s genuine.

“Jess wasn’t one of those politicians that comes out one day every three and a half years to make sure people realise she’s around – she’s at the swap meets, she’s at the school events, and people know who she is and knows what she stands for and what she’ll do for them and I think that’s incredibly important when you’re a politician.

“Those are key things that I would like to emulate from what Jess has done and be a good honest hard-working local member that never takes for granted the faith people in the Swan Hills put in you to do the best you can for them.”

Ms Maynard is an Ellenbrook business owner and West Swan resident, and while she lives in the neighbouring electorate, she said her connections to the electorate she’s campaigning in are strong.

“I live one electorate over in West Swan, which is the one that abuts it, but because my business is in Ellenbrook, that’s my connection to the community,” she said.

“I’m the treasurer of the Ellenbrook Dockers, the Ellenbrook Community Collective and Swan Chamber of Commerce.
“So that’s my connection to the community so while I don’t live in there at the moment I am obviously connected – I’m not parachuted in from anywhere.”

Ms Maynard said reaching out to the community has been rewarding and she’s heard resident concerns about cost of living, accessible transport, the need for a public pool and community centre in Ellenbrook.

“Cost of living is a massive one,” she said.

“Being able to afford raising kids here, being able to have sports programs and being able to afford the mortgage and budgeting.

“With the train now open, people have been waiting for that for 20 years.

“So, big things like that and getting the services out there that people want is a goal of mine.”

Ms Maynard said she’s looking forward to impacting the community positively by delivering the same services that provided opportunities for her successes.

“I have always had an interest in politics more so from a perspective of realising from a very early age the people on TV had an impact on my life and so I always took an interest in what was going on because I feel like you have to,” she said.

“It’s your obligation and it’s your right as a voting citizen to know what’s going on.

“This is my opportunity to help protect those things for people like me who are just watching on TV like ages ago.

“While I’ve built an incredibly successful life for myself, that foundation, that core root is something that I hold onto a lot,” she said.

“I come from a single-parent household, my mom still works at Coles, we are here as a very grounded salt of the earth every day working Australian family.

“And while people might see a snippet of my life now, as an accounting partner, I’ve won some amazing awards which has been fantastic but that’s who I’ve become, but who I am at my core is an everyday salt of the earth working person.

“When I think about government, I think their core job is to provide those basic things for people to make sure they’re incredibly strong, so people like me have the chance to be successful.”