She describes herself as a compassionate progressive and emphasised the role of grassroots support.
Voices for Goulburn Valley produced a report from consultation with the community, which Ms Costa will base her campaign goals on.
“If the community are prepared to support me, I’m not the winner, the community is,” Ms Costa said.
“We need to be able to imagine the future as something fulfilling, joyful, gives us purpose and is bright not dystopic.”
Ms Costa was born in the Goulburn Valley, raised in Shepparton East, and her family has farmed fruits and vegetables in the area for multiple decades.
She is a landscape architect who has run her own business, Design by Nature, and has worked with construction companies in Shepparton.
Although she lives outside the electorate, Ms Costa said that when she first looked at a map of the Shepparton district, she felt like she was looking at her own backyard.
“I’ve spent all my life here,” Ms Costa said.
Ms Costa currently lives in Rushworth with her husband and two primary school-aged children.
If elected, she said she hoped to work on disaster preparedness and mitigation of the effects of climate change, which she has seen the effects of in the Goulburn Valley.
“We can no longer say these events are unprecedented,” she said.
“We have to deal with the effects of it, regardless of where it is coming from.”
When asked about water policy, Ms Costa said the Goulburn River was the lifeblood of the Goulburn Valley and advocated for a balanced approach.
“There’s no one or the other — a health environment equals a healthy society,” she said.
“Healthy farmland depends on a healthy river.”
If elected to the crossbench, Ms Costa said she would work with the government to get results, even if she disagreed with the elected party.
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