LIBS ENTER FREO POLITICAL FRAY


EXCLUSIVE: LIBERAL Party member and North Coogee businesswoman Serena Kipling will contest the seat of Fremantle at the state election on March 8.
The Lower House candidate will take on sitting Labor MLA Simone McGurk, Greens candidate Felicity Townsend, ‘independent’ Kate Hulett and Legalise Cannabis WA member David Foley.
Officially endorsed this week, the 63-year-old Chesham-born mother of two told StreetWise she will fight for real action on the cost of living, a better healthcare system, finding solutions to the housing crisis, more resources for local police and support for local businesses and jobs.
A Lib for the past nine years, Serena added: “I am passionate about making the place better, Fremantle hasn’t changed a lot in the 25 years since my family arrived. Dirty streets, the loss of the CAT bus, the disgrace of the amphitheatre in Booyeembara Park, the Roundhouse not being properly maintained and the list goes on.”
Serena and her family moved to Australia in 1999 and became Australian citizens in 2006. Serena is a chartered engineer and a professional member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
An inaugural member of the Port Coogee Community Association, she filled the role of business liaison and environment coordinator including coordinating Adopt-a-Spot and Containers for Change in Port Coogee.
With 40 years of experience in business and industry, she has worked in the engineering field including in the nuclear energy field for most of that time and in education for 26 years working with young people in the performing arts.
She says she wants to see better support for teachers to create stronger learning environments for young people to have an exemplary level of education that leads to improved literacy and numeracy outcomes.
In the UK, Serena ran Stagecoach Performing Arts in Hartlepool in the North East of England, the biggest global network of part-time performing arts schools for children and teens aged four to 18 yrs. She continued to be involved with Stagecoach in Australia and established the network in Perth in 2000, training 250 students each weekend.
Serena said with her extensive business, industry and education background she has the energy and experience to be a strong voice in State Parliament.
“I have worked hard in all the communities I have ever lived in, volunteering wherever possible to make our communities better,” she says. “In Fremantle, our priorities and passion are about heritage, law and order, homelessness, housing, small business and the arts, along with our beautiful coastline including rejuvenating the abandoned South Fremantle power station site.”
The previous Freo Liberal candidate Miquela Riley ran in 2021 losing to Ms McGurk who won the seat at the 2013 State election.
Fremantle has been contested at every election since the first WA election in 1890. The seat was in Labor hands continuously from 1924 until it was lost to the Greens at a 2009 by-election. Labor regained the seat in 2013.
Ms McGurk launched her campaign on Saturday. Weekend media reports also revealed Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 is targeting the Labor minister’s seat and helping fund Ms Hulett’s campaign.