STATE Upper House member and parliamentary leader of the WA Greens Giz Watson and her partner of 22 years social researcher June Lowe spent a couple of hours with the Donnybrook-Bridgetown Mail during a weekend visit to Bridgetown.
"Bridgetown is a beautiful place," Ms Watson said.
"The Winter Festival is something to enjoy and we've come for the weekend to enjoy events, meet friends and informally listen to what local people have to say."
Ms Watson is moving from the city back to the south, near Denmark, and will undertake the huge risk of resigning from her safe North Metropolitan parliamentary seat to challenge for a South West seat.
"I've done my time in the city," she said.
"I'm returning to where my heart is and hopefully I can secure a seat for the Greens from the South West. We've done it before and I can then represent in parliament unfinished business in the South West."
With Warrup forest having become a hotbed of debate over logging Ms Watson said there was much still to be sorted out in parliament over logging and the protection of the remaining old growth native forests.
She is concerned about the increasing cost of living pressures and their impact on the South West's poorest.
"The crippling price of housing, the crippling mortgages, the crippling rents worry so many South West families," she said. "We are hearing the hardship stories and I want to do something about this.
"I've heard terrible hardship from Bridgetown families, some cannot afford firewood for the winter, some can't afford to pay for utilities."
Ms Lowe said there was no one better to represent the hardship of South West residents than seasoned campaigner Ms Watson.
"We have been heartened by the rise of the Renters Alliance which is describing the hardship of residents and of people and families right here in Bridgetown - the high rents are abominable," Ms Lowe said.
Ms Watson said she understood the Bridgetown and South West demographics - ageing, childhood and employment issues. She would like to see entrepreneurial and employment opportunities supported and the improved use of agricultural land and yield.
She also said the vegetable and fruit industries needed to be better supported.
"I will always take every opportunity to come to Bridgetown and the towns and communities of the Blackwood," Ms Watson said.
"Coming back to live in our South West for me is about coming home."
