VIP guest inspires Coast women

SUPER WOMAN: Clare Martin, right, with young mothers and mothers-to-be at Burnside Family Centre yesterday.

Bruce Thomas

CLARE Martin, the CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service, spent yesterday in Coffs Harbour talking to locals about the social problems affecting residents on the Coffs Coast.

Mrs Martin was in the city as the guest of the Coffs Harbour Zonta Club and was the guest speaker at the club’s annual International Women’s Day Breakfast yesterday.

At the breakfast the former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory spoke about women and politics and her own experiences as a married woman with a husband, children, pets and a house as well as a Territory to run.

She also spoke warmly about the support her daughter had given her in her political career.

The other speakers at the breakfast were two of Zonta’s young Women in Public Affairs selected from local high schools: Brenna Dixon from Bellingen High School and Linda Taylor from John Paul College, who spoke about their experiences as young women helping others in their community.

During a visit to Burnside Uniting Care Family centre, where she sat in on a group for young mothers, Mrs Martin was told that adequate affordable housing was the peak problem for people on low incomes in Coffs Harbour, something she said she was finding right around Australia.