“You changed my world!” Angie enthused after outlining her early life experiences, being sent to Denmark as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student. [OK, you can now slowly come down off your high, but it’s nice to know that Rotary had a major influence in her career… ☺] She was nominated by the Rotary Club of Gawler (a suburb of Adelaide). But visualise: You are aged 17, you arrive in a non-English speaking country, you are hosted by a family where no one spoke English… Does this qualify to be put into the category of ‘being thrown in at the deep end’ or what? Studying to play the Tenor Saxophone, Angie came to the attention of famous Jazz Musician Don Burrows and scored a scholarship to study music at the Conservatorium. The resulting grounding is most unusual indeed for any member of parliament: she became a Professional Musician! But learning never stops: some 25 years later, she went back to Uni to study for a Business Degree.There would be so much material to talk about. Angie selected her travel to Bangladesh in January last year, on behalf of the ‘Save the Children’ fund, visiting refugee camps. “I witnessed a small girl chopping off the nails of chicken feet to supplement the food in her mum’s wok” she graphically outlined the experience. The problems faced are immense. The camps total around 1.1 million people, some 750,000 recent arrivals alone people who escaped persecution in Myanmar. To accommodate the camps, virgin jungle is torn up, in the process seriously threatening the survival of wildlife, such as the Indian Elephant.
On the local scene, Angie works closely with Ministers Stuart Roberts and Karen Andrews on the ‘Re-imagine Gold Coast’ project. Space does not permit us to elaborate, but find out all about it: click on this link to download it all from Angie’s website.
In summary: Isn't it refreshing indeed to listen to a Member of Parliament who can fluently put some words together, speak freshly and coherently “off the cuff” and, most importantly, who talks sense!