Three People I'd like to have to Dinner - and Why

1. My husband Ross - for some quiet time away from parenting and our busy working lives.
2. Dad - I love him enormously but I never get time alone with him. He is my rock and I draw my strength from him.
3. Penny Wong, new federal Minister. She seems so strong, confident and reliable. What makes her tick?  

The Last Book I Read was...

Serendipity. My 14 year old daughter insisted that I read it and I'm only doing so in order to understand why she liked it so much. Personally, I have to say it's not my type of book. 
 

The Last Music I Bought or 
Listened to was...

Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line

My Interests
(outside of this election)

• Campaigning on important social and environmental issues from the perspectives of social justice and ecologically sustainable development
• Cycling
• Hiking
• Walking on the beach

Candidate Profile Debbie Blumel

My History

My husband Ross and I have lived on the Sunshine Coast for most of our lives and we're raising our family here.

I've worked for most of my life in the health industry - as a Community Health Social Worker in the early years and then as a senior adviser and manager in more recent years.

My careeer changed significantly when I earned my MBA qualifications. I went into a range of management positions, but I seriously missed my community work. After many years, I found an outlet for my community work again in politics and in regional campaigns around social justice and environmental issues.

Over the past five years, my main area of work has been leading and managing the Healthy Regions and Communities Strategic Project. As its title suggests, this project aims to improve population health by strengthening the capacity of government and non-government agencies to integrate and coordinate at the community and regional levels.

This is being achieved through a range of supported planning processes and access to valuable planning tools and knowledge that I have collated and made available via a web portal.

I have an indepth understanding of planning and development assessment legislation through a previous project which looked at the impact of a wide range of Queensland Government laws.

I also have very good working relationships with Federal and State Government Ministers and I can and will use these for the benefit of my Division 8 and the wider Sunshine Cost region. 
 

My Objectives

My main objective for the Sunshine Coast is to achieve a balance between economic, social and environmental development.

If we are to “not end up like the Gold Coast”, as so many people say, then we must consider, in an integrated way, the wider economic, social and environmental implications of our decisions and actions.

And we must also take a long-term rather than short-term view. We must look beyond economic progress to achieve sustainable development.

Economic and social progress depends so much on healthy ecological processes. When we think of development, we must think of development of our communities, not just buildings and new estates. We must think of improvements in the quality of our lives.

So often, we have all been diminished by what has passed for ‘development’ until now.

I am also committed to engagement with the community and to ensuring that people and communities have opportunities to participate and have their say.

Local people must have a sense of ownership over their lives and their local natural and built environments. The foundation of healthy communities lies in their empowerment.

I do think we can all afford to reduce our individual and collective ecological footprint and I’m keen to establish some initiatives during this new council’s first term.

My Contact Details

Phone: 5444 1897

Email: dblumel @ bigpond.net.au

Postal: PO Box 33 Coolum Beach Qld 4573

Website: www.debbieblumel.com.au