Socialist to Contest Blue Mountains City Council Elections

John Tognolini

The NSW local government elections will be held on September 13. The Socialist Alliance will be standing John Tognolini (Togs) for the First Ward in the Blue Mountains City Council, which covers Katoomba, Leura, Medlow Bath, Blackheath, the Shipley Plateau, Mount Victoria, Bell, Mount Wilson, Mount Irvine and the Megalong Valley.

John will be campaigning against unjust workplace laws by advocating policies to:·


Make the Blue Mountains an Australian Workplace Agreement/individual contract-free zone.·

Ban BMCC work being given to contractors who use AWAs, and all other non-union contracts.·

Defend volunteer bushfire fighters and State Emergency Service volunteers from the effects of the WorkChoices laws that are still in place.


A major plank of John's campaign will be opposing the Labor state government's proposed privatisation of the power industry. Such basic utilities must be kept in public hands. John will also campaign for:·


Defending and extending public education and health care, emergency services and transport.


No transport of uranium, nuclear waste or cyanide through the Blue Mountains.·


Open and accountable local government and more community services.·


Real solutions to climate change -- a cause of more extreme bushfires and storms.

John Tognolini has been a political activist for more than 30 years. He has been a high school teacher for the past eight years in western Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Central West. He is active in the NSW Teachers Federation, and served on the union's state council for nearly five years. He has been a NSWTF delegate to Unions NSW and is currently a NSWTF representative to the NSW Board of Studies for the Ancient and Modern History Curriculum Committees.


John is active in the Blue Mountains Union Council and worked in the Macquarie Your Rights At Work Campaign last year.


Over the years, John has also been involved in Justice Action, the NSW National Parks Association and the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia.


Before teaching, he worked as a labourer, scaffolder, rigger, dogman, railway fettler/ganger and a painter and docker. He is a life member of the Federated Ship Painters & Dockers Union and was a Builders Labourers Federation organiser.


John is strongly committed to the local community. He is a volunteer bushfire fighter of more than 14 years' standing, and coached and helped organise junior Australian Football for four years in Katoomba. He has been involved in community radio for 20 years and currently presents the Katoomba Surf Club on BLUFM 89.1 every Sunday night from 8-10pm.


For more information about the Socialist Alliance's Blue Mountains City Council election campaign, email bluemountains@socialist-alliance.org or phone John on 0428 826 347. For information about the Socialist Alliance's policies, visit http://www.socialist-alliance.org/