north east regional extra | December 18 - 24, 2019
nemedia.com.au
1.
December 18 - 24, 2019
Passion and
By CORAL COOKSLEY
RE-ELECTED as Indigo Shire mayor last month, Jenny O’Connor is no stranger to local government and politics having grown up in an influential sphere when she was young. The daughter of a father in the teaching profession and a councillor for many years with a mother who was a social worker, Jenny’s interest in the political and government arena was also influenced by close family friend Pauline Toner, the first female cabinet minister in the Parliament of Victoria and Labor Party member. An understanding of business and the land was gained too as the eldest grandchild of the late Edith and Eric Hoy who were transport operators in the skiing industry in the early 1930s where they ran buses between Wangaratta, Harrietville to Mount Hotham as well as having family in farming. Jenny was born in Wangaratta but raised in Melbourne and her career took many pathways from training as a registered nurse at Melbourne’s Mercy Private Hospital, to becoming a counsellor working in community health. As a single mum, Jenny also helped successfully leverage rights for solo mothers when she travelled to Canberra to meet the Federal Health Minister at the time. “I had grown up believing that politicians are just people and if you want something to happen you go talk to them,” she said. For close to two decades she worked in health areas of drug and alcohol abuse, sexual assault and family violence both in the city and rural regions and returned to the North East 25 years ago. In shifting back to the country, Jenny first lived in Harrietville, establishing a business and managing the Centre Against Sexual Assault in Wangaratta. With a move to Beechworth in 2003 she worked in primary health care at Beechworth Health Services and started running for politics a year later.
proactivity
◆ MAKIING A DIFFERENCE: Indigo mayor Jenny O’Connor believes we all have a role to play to improve the world we live in.
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