24/05/2026
In a past life I was a lawyer. Now I am a grant consultant and funding strategist. An advocate for the environment and our native wildlife. And I rescue kangaroos. Often in the middle of the night, in the cold, on the side of a road, with hands that shake and a torch held in my teeth. I am a volunteer.
I do not own a megaphone. I don't throw paint. What I have done, alongside many other wildlife rescuers and carers across this state, is speak up loudly about trees that were there before any of us. Public land that belongs to all of us. Wildlife that has nowhere left to go.
If that makes me an extremist, then the word has lost its meaning.
Take a look at who turned up to protect the Park Lands. Grandparents with thermoses. Kids holding hand drawn signs. Retired teachers. Off duty nurses. Parents with prams. Students. People in high vis who came straight from a shift. Ordinary South Australians who turned up because that is what you do for a place you care about.
We are not a threat to South Australia. We are South Australians.
Speaking up for public land is not radical. Caring about wildlife is not dangerous. Asking questions of the people we elect is the most ordinary, civic, democratic thing a person can do.
Every change in this country that we now thank people for started with someone questioning and advocating. People who wanted clean rivers, equality, safer workplaces, kinder cities. They were criticised first and thanked later. That is the pattern.
I am not asking for thanks. I am asking the Premier to put down the word extremist and pick up a conversation instead.
The Park Lands belong to all of us. So does democracy.
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