A Bega woman who held more than 150 climate strikes has been announced as the Greens candidate for Eden Monaro, running against sitting Labor MP Kristy McBain.
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Inspired by the Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, Vivian Harris has been holding a weekly sit-in at the Littleton Gardens to engage with her community peacefully on the urgent need for climate action.
Ms Harris, a teacher with qualifications in veterinary and environmental science who now works in retail, was endorsed by the party in time for International Women's Day Tuesday after holding her 153rd climate protest.
Climate policy will be the primary issue of Ms Harris's campaign in the Eden Monaro, where residents have endured devastating bushfires made more deadly and more frequent by the changing climate. She will call for the immediate implementation of proven solutions to the climate crisis.
"You can actually understand intellectually that that climate change is real, but to be living through Black Summer and breathing that smoke, it made it a visceral thing [for the people of Eden Monaro]," Ms Harris told Australian Community Media.
"So even though I knew climate change was real, I knew it was really important - but when it gets right into your bones, when you actually breathe that smoke, and you live with that fear and anxiety, that's what pushes me."
Neither of the major parties had taken climate action seriously, she said. The bushfires and now the disastrous flooding in northern NSW were a taste of what was to come if Australia failed to act immediately and decisively on the science.
Ms Harris will also campaign on Australians left behind economically, and Greens policies for a jobs guarantee, affordable housing, free education and health, and the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
No Liberal or National candidate has yet been named in the seat, which Ms McBain retained by a razer thin 0.39 per cent in the 2019 election.
With the last possible date for the federal election less than three months away, the Liberal-National Coalition has still not announced candidates in more than 20 other electorates in New South Wales due to a factional standoff between the Liberal state party officials and the camp representing the Prime Minister.
The Liberal Party's federal executive took control of the NSW branch, giving Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet the power to decide who represents the party in three seats with a sitting Coalition MP - Alex Hawke in Mitchell, Sussan Ley in Farrer and Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney.
Labor are yet to announce candidates in 14 federal seats in NSW, with the Greens yet to name candidates in 30 seats in the state.am