Former farmer and agribusiness manager Alison Stephens has been endorsed as the Labor Party candidate for the Gippsland Federal electorate.
Alison hails from Cowwarr and has lived and worked entirely in the Gippsland region with the exception of three years in the Australian Army.
Following her Army service Alison studied at Churchill gaining a Diploma of Welfare Studies. She spent the next 20 years working in public and private health, welfare and social support sectors across Gippsland. This included five years with a general practitioner organisation in East Gippsland learning first-hand the issues facing both doctors and patients in rural and remote locations.
The past 20 years have been spent in agriculture; firstly as a beef farmer then as a lucerne and other crop grower; lastly as the manager of an agricultural contracting business, providing services to farmers in the mid Gippsland and Macalister Irrigation Districts.
Alison knows and has lived the pressures faced by farmers and farming communities and knows how much hard work and sacrifice is needed to sustain a small business. She also knows and understands how crucial small businesses are in local communities both as employers and participants in the community.
“I am a life member of the Australian Labor Party because I believe in Labor values that put people first,” she said.
Alison is an advocate for people like herself who choose to live, raise their families and work in regional, rural and remote locations in Gippsland.
“I love Gippsland and its people; it would be an honour to represent you in Federal Parliament,” she said.
