Labor picks Fairbridge mentor for Canning fight

Barry Winmar, a former police officer who now runs the Fairbridge Foundation’s Bindjareb project, was elected at a Labor meeting on Monday night.

Originally from Kellerberrin, Mr Winmar worked as the officer in charge of the Morowa police station before taking on his current role where he helps Aboriginal people in prison find training and support to get jobs in the mining industry.

Mr Winmar said he was ready to take on politics as a career because he was concerned many communities in Canning didn’t have a voice in parliament.

“There's no Labor voice in Canning, no one standing up for lots of people in the community, and they're doing it tough,” he said.

“I'm taking a stand and trying to build the capacity of the community around safety, opportunities for jobs, access to health and trying to look at education for the future.”

He said a central concern was the tax cuts in the recent federal budget that only benefited people with incomes higher than average.

“If you live in the top end of town, the concessions are there, but people in the Canning region have an average income below $80,000 and some of the other incentives that go with it, the government are looking at cutting back on,” he said.

Although conceding law and order was a state issue, Mr Winmar said his background as a police officer would give the community real-world experience in tackling community safety policy.

“One of the things I experienced when I was in the job was community policing and that's lacking at the moment in the current policing model,” he said.

“Access to policing services after hours and what it takes to keep our streets safe is an issue.”

Health was also on Mr Winmar's list of concerns and he criticised cuts to federal hospital funding.

“What I'm hearing from locals is that they have to travel a long time for appointments and waiting lists are long, so that's something from a federal perspective where there can be some impact,” he said.

“People don't want to travel to the city for services, we need to look at the current health infrastructure we've got to service Peel.”

Mr Winmar said he knew he had a tough job ahead of him, but hoped his mix of skills would be right for Canning.

“I really believe that communities in Canning don't have a voice, so I've taken up the challenge and I think I've got a lot to offer and the policies we have are strong and robust and it's what the community is looking for at the moment.”