ANNA'S MUM TO SEEK ELECTION

THE mother of ecstasy victim Anna Wood will run for State Parliament in the
wake of Education Minister John Aquilina writing a reference for the club
where her daughter took the drug.

Angela Wood yesterday told The Daily Telegraph she will contest Liberal
Party pre-selection for the northern beaches State seat of Manly.

But Mrs Wood, who joined the Liberal Party's Seaforth branch three months
ago, faces opposition within the area from several candidates including
solicitor David Begg and former North Shore MP Phillip Smiles.

Mrs Wood said the "final nail" for her were revelations in State Parliament
last week that Mr Aquilina had acted on behalf of the Maltese community-run
club.

"When I heard that John Aquilina had written the letter and the Premier Bob
Carr defending him for doing it, my mind was immediately made up," Mrs Wood
said.

"That issue and the way the Government had treated it really made me sure
this was what I had wanted to do."

The letter, dated September 12 last year, from Mr Aquilina calls for
leniency for the Phoenician Club which was the venue of the dance party at
which 15-year-old Anna Wood took ecstasy which later killed her.

Mr Aquilina said he had written the reference for the Phoenician Club last
year after it was fined $100,000 by the Licensing Court for breaking the
law by acting as an entertainment facility and not providing adequate
supervision.

Mrs Wood was also critical of current Manly MP Independent Peter Macdonald,
who she claims has taken a "soft approach" to drug laws.

Under the current boundaries Dr Macdonald, a popular local GP and
councillor, holds Manly comfortably on an 11 per cent margin.

But under the redistribution of State seats underway, Liberal Party
strategists believe Dr Macdonald will lose some support from key areas.

The NSW Liberal Party is targeting Manly as a seat they can win at the 1999
State election after a dismal showing at the 1995 election where their
candidate, David Oldfield, was beaten comprehensively by Dr Macdonald.

Mr Oldfield later defected to Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party where he is
the controversial MP's senior adviser.

Mrs Wood, who is currently touring the country spreading the message of a
zero-tolerance approach to drugs, said she had "passed the point of sitting
on the sidelines".

"It's got to the stage where I've realised that to really make a change I
have to take a step like this," she said yesterday before flying out to Perth.

"I threw away the rose coloured glasses some time ago ... 2 years ago my
husband Tony and I were just ordinary people and suddenly our world was
turned around."

While admitting she was a "political novice", Mrs Wood said she was aware
of the challenges that lay ahead in her quest for preselection.

"I'm not a single issue candidate ... the anti-drugs message is not my only
message.

"There are many things that need to be improved around the Manly area, for
example transport and roads are two big issues for people here."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski