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In the City of Fremantle chambers, 11 councillors meet fortnightly to discuss projects and policies.
At 22 years old, Jemima Williamson-Wong is Fremantle’s youngest councillor.
Her family have lived in Freo for five generations, so Jemima has a strong connection to the community.
Growing up, she knew a few councillors and knew that being on the Council was an option for her.
“I’ve always been really interested in having an impact or creating positive change and building community,” she says.
“The opportunity came up and I thought I’d give it a go.”
Jemima fits her commitments as an elected member around studying law and sustainable development full-time at Murdoch Uni.
Credit: via FREOVIEW
The majority of Jemima’s work as a councillor is spent attending Council meetings, organising working groups and engaging with the community.
“Having a connection to the people you live near is really important,” says Jemima.
“It has shaped who I am and how I’ve lived my life.”
CLIMATE ACTION
Jemima is chair of the City’s Community Emissions Working Group.
“It’s really exciting because we have led the way in climate [but] we’ve only really been focused on corporate emissions,” says Jemima.
“This working group allows us to start looking at emissions reduction strategies within our community.
“We have more than 750,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide that are generated by commercial industry and residential sectors within the City of Fremantle.
“The working group allows us to assess those emissions and try to choose the priority projects to deliver.”
RECONCILIATION NOW
For Jemima, addressing climate change and reconciliation for First Nations people go hand in hand.
“Any action we take on climate should also have a social justice outcome,” says Jemima.
“We know that First Nations people are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.
“Asking everyone to be a part of moving forward with climate includes making sure that First Nations knowledge is at the front of that.”
MONEY TALKS
Credit: Supplied: Jemima Williamson-Wong
Unfortunately, decision making at a local government level always comes down to funding.
“Even in conversations in our working group … we will always come back to the cost of one [project] versus the other,” says Jemima.
“I don’t think we can say that money isn’t everything, because it does make the world go round.
“It’s obviously really important in our decision making and lives.
“But at the same time, if we have goals that aren’t monetary … like being happy or well, those things will not be achieved if the choices are only made by looking at money.”
MEASURING HAPPINESS
In Australia, the factor used to consider the general happiness of the population is our gross domestic product (GDP).
“We are apparently more successful when our GDP rises, but our GDP rises when we’ve gone through a climate disaster,” says Jemima.
“If a bushfire happens or the huge floods that we had a couple years ago, the GDP would have increased because of rebuilding all of that infrastructure.”
Jemima has a different measure of happiness.
“For me, I think markers of success are around community and how well you know your neighbours,” she says.
WELLBEING
Jemima says the Fremantle Council has goals that aren’t purely economically driven.
Their Urban Forest Plan aims to increase tree canopy cover to 20% by 2027 to mitigate the urban heat island effect.
Another example is reconciliation work on Wadjemup/Rottnest Island.
“It is not delivering a return on investment in a cash sense, but it is delivering a huge and unquantifiable return on investment for reconciliation,” says Jemima.
FOR THE FUTURE
Credit: Supplied: Jemima Williamson-Wong
Jemima believes introducing wellbeing indexes is critical to ensure current decision makers take future generations into account.
While wellbeing indexes do exist in Australia, they aren’t embedded into government decision making.
In 2015, Wales introduced legislation called the Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015.
Under the legislation, the Welsh Government is legally required to consider the social, cultural, environmental and economic wellbeing of Welsh people into the future, for every single decision.
Jemima says there’s no reason Australia can’t implement the same structures as Wales.
DIVERSITY IS KEY
Jemima spoke at TedxKings Park Youth in November about the importance of bringing diversity to the decision-making table.
She says being able to share her message with so many people “feels pretty crazy”.
“I’m always driven by the idea that, if I could just encourage one person to be more engaged or to want to help design the future that we are going to live in, then I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve,” says Jemima.
“I hope that I can get other young people excited about being involved.”
While Jemima is Freo’s youngest councillor, another has served the Council for more than 30 years.
This diversity is key to ensure that decisions are made for everyone, says Jemima.
Jemima encourages young people to engage with council and climate issues to fight for a better future for future generations.
“It’s our world that we’re going to be inheriting and I think we should all be excited by the fact that we can play a role in designing it.”
