LOCAL council and State and Federal Parliament seats are in The Greens sights, with the party setting up a local branch to campaign from in future elections.
Former Playford councillor Carol Muzyk founded and is the first convenor of the Spence branch of The Greens last week, with the group signing up 19 initial members.
The Spence electorate – held by Labor’s Nick Champion – covers all of the Gawler and Playford council regions and the State Parliament seats of Light, Taylor and Elizabeth.
Mrs Muzyk said the branch is now targeting a recruitment drive in the lead up to the upcoming local, state and federal elections in 2022.
“For the state and federal elections it would be great if we could get a candidate up so we can get moving forward,” she said.
“Among our membership already we have some very highly-skilled people who could quite easily push us forward.”
At the 2019 Federal Election, The Greens won 7.2 per cent of first preference votes in Spence after putting forward Greenwith resident Daniel Jury as its candidate.
Mr Champion has held the seat – formerly known as Wakefield – since 2007 and received a 50.1 per cent majority of first preference votes last year.
Ms Muzyk said the party was yet to identify localised issues and policies it would target at the upcoming elections, but wanted to improve on The Greens 2019 showing.
“We’re a very open-minded group who wants to hear from the community and community groups,” she said.
“We’re all becoming aware of the environmental and social issues The Greens ‘four pillars’ are about.”
Born in Gawler, Ms Muzyk left the Playford Council chamber in mid-2018 for work reasons, spending time between the eastern states and her Angle Vale home.
She is back in SA for good now though and is contemplating a tilt against Playford Mayor Glenn Docherty at the 2022 local government elections.
“I’m still deciding where I put my efforts,” she said. “There is still the possibility that I try for (Playford) mayor again.
“I have a good couple of months to decide where I can put my best effort with my background and see what the rest of the branch wants to do.”