Health and ageing top Barnsley’s agenda

PUBLIC health advocate Kathryn Barnsley will run for Labor in Franklin in the upcoming state election.

Dr Barnsley, 68, is an adjunct researcher at the University of Tasmania School of Medicine, and has announced her candidacy after being “appalled” by the Liberals’ campaign in the Pembroke by-election.

“What really got my goat this time, I was so angry at the treatment of Doug Chipman by the Liberal Party, the outrageous ageism. I was just incensed,” Dr Barnsley said.

“I thought ‘this is ridiculous.’ I got a PhD when I was 66, I’ve got lots of friends who are really busy, women and men in their 60s, 70s and 80s who are doing lots of things.

“The contemptuous treatment of older citizens, seniors, was just dreadful.”

Dr Barnsley has worked in areas of tobacco control and public health policy making.

She said her primary areas of interest were health and the treatment of older people, but she was also concerned with issues affecting her children and grandchildren such as affordable housing and education.

Dr Barnsley has lived at Kingston for 20 years.

Labor State Secretary Stuart Benson said Dr Barnsley was a welcome addition to Labor’s team of candidates, particularly in light of her “proven history as a champion for preventive health.”

Dr Barnsley will run alongside previously announced Labor candidates for Franklin David O’Byrne, Heather Chong, Kevin Midson and Alison Standen.

Scott Faulkner, who had announced as a Labor candidate in Denison, has withdrawn due to a recurring illness.