Bega business owner Peter Haggar has been announced as the Greens candidate for the by-election for the state seat of Bega.
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He will be taking on Labor candidate Dr Michael Holland and Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs with the election date expected sometime in February.
Mr Haggar has lived in the Bega Valley for 15 years and operated Café Evolve, a popular café located in the heart of Bega since 2006.
The top issues that Mr Haggar feels passionately about addressing include the role logging of native forests had in the bushfires, supporting the health system during the pandemic, address the housing crisis and improving relationships with peoples of the Yuin nation.
Mr Haggar said politicians ought to be listening to local Indigenous communities, forest ecologists and the findings coming out of the NSW Bushfires coronial inquest to "change the ways we deal with our forests".
"The main things I want to get across is that we respond to knowledge, not ideology, that we do something about the state of our forests and the need to take steps on climate change," Mr Haggar said.
It's one thing to advocate and argue for sustainable or ecological changes, but another to actually put them in place.
Prior to putting his hat in the ring for the seat as Bega MP, Mr Haggar and his partner and co-owner of café Evolve, Anna Leamon, decided to make a positive impact on a small scale through their business.
"We bought the café and had those values from the start I guess, of providing quality food but remaining a café that suited greater crowds of people," he said.
Some of the sustainable practices the couple have put in place at their café include installing solar power, shifting from gas cooktops to induction ones, sourcing their goods from local suppliers, use of compostable packaging, and their focus on waste reduction.
"We're trying to minimise our carbon footprint, because if there's an opportunity to do things sustainably, we will," Mr Haggar said.
"Just about the only things that go in landfill these days is the odd dirty bits of soft plastic and the dockets from the till because they've got BPA on them."
Mr Haggar said one of the programs that works very well in the Bega Valley and which had helped businesses like his, was the Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) campaign.
"It's amazing that Bega is doing the FOGO thing, we've got facilities where you can use compostable packaging, and have it composted and returned to the soil, and that's the key to getting rid of single single use plastics, which we need to be doing," he said.
What Peter Haggar loves about the region
Having been born in Bombala and grown up in rural communities Mr Haggar has an appreciation for regional issues.
"The plus about these communities is you're in contact with different types of people and I think there is more socioeconomic diversity. Where in cities you may find yourself in areas where people are of the same socioeconomic group or same cultural backgrounds," Mr Haggar said.
Mr Haggar said he had also come to have a great respect for the Djiringanj community during his time in the Bega Valley.
"I think their voices can be a real asset and need to be heard," Mr Haggar said.
Mr Haggar said the way forward was to work more closely with local Indigenous community members.
"We need to find a way to work together with people like Dan Morgan, who are out there teaching cultural burning and connection to country, its really quite amazing and part of the solution," Mr Haggar said.
"Fundamental to my approach across all policy areas is improving our relationship with peoples of the Yuin nation and recognising not only that their rights were never ceded and also that they have leadership roles to play in the years ahead."
What the Greens candidate hopes to achieve
"If I were to be elected, I would want us to start listening to the knowledge and develop processes, where we can listen to our area, listen to our community, and listen to country. I think what we need in politics," he said.
Mr Haggar said the main thing he would hope to achieve is to encourage people to get involved in whatever ways they can.
"We need people to be able to respond when they can. And sometimes you can't...but for those that have the ability to respond. I'm calling on them to respond and getting involved," he said.
Mr Haggar said it can be anywhere from bringing up issues in local church groups, to local political parties and any kind of social groups people partake in.
"These are tumultuous times and I am committed to policy solutions based on the best available knowledge on behalf of local communities. Now is not the time for wishful thinking, faith based, or ideological decision making," Mr Haggar said.
"I am determined to start conversations and implement proven solutions to vital issues affecting our region."
The foremost issue Mr Haggar said he would want to address was the role that native forest logging played in the Black Summer fires.
"We urgently need to change our relationship to our native forests if we are to safeguard both our environment and our communities," he said.
Another key area was strengthening the health system, including help around mental health following the impacts of the Black Summer fires and COVID-19 on the community.
"A strong, well resourced, health system is essential, particularly during this pandemic. The recent bushfires and current pandemic has highlighted too many weaknesses in our health system, including mental health services and these must be addressed as a priority," Mr Haggar said.
Mr Haggar said another prevailing issue needing to be addressed was the existential housing crisis along the South Coast which he says had been "created by the special interest economic rationalism of the major parties".
"Another high priority for me and the Greens is the role that a strong TAFE system plays in integrating our young people, local workplaces and communities."
Mr Haggar said he considered himself to be a political ecologist rather than a political environmentalist. The difference being instead of looking at the harm made on nature by human activities, he looks at how nature interacts with its surroundings.
"As a political ecologist, I recognise that we're embedded in nature and that's the difference with the Greens, its a step further and recognises that societies exist inside the planetary system and that in order to maintain societies, you need to maintain nature," he said.
Mr Haggar said it was this very ideology that got him to join the Greens in the first place.
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Amandine Ahrens
I've grown up in the Bega Valley and I'm a regional daily news reporter on the Far South Coast of NSW. Got a story? Get in touch: 0436 426 843 or email amandine.ahrens@austcommunitymedia.com.au
I've grown up in the Bega Valley and I'm a regional daily news reporter on the Far South Coast of NSW. Got a story? Get in touch: 0436 426 843 or email amandine.ahrens@austcommunitymedia.com.au
