The Kororoit by-election is really getting interesting. I have to say that the Gippsland by-election is looking like a lock for the Nationals, with the machine-driven parties resorting to the usual discrediting, smear campaigns.
But today at roughly around 11am there was quickly organized ‘Neglect of the West’ rally. Marcus Power (Greens), Les Twentyman (Ind) and Jenny Matic (Liberals) were there along with representatives from Save Our Suburbs (SoS), Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association (SunRRA) and the St Albans Traders Association. While looking for a place to park (we decided to take our gorgeous dog to the rally), we saw Ted Baillieu and Jenny Matic getting out of a Land Rover looking rather confused about where they were.
The rally assembled, Sean from SunRRA spoke really well as did Les and Colleen Hartland (Greens MLC for Western Metro Region) – who all received rounds of vigorous applause and obvious support. Marcus was noticeably speaking with people assembled at the rally. Remarkably once Ted spoke, he and Jenny walked off and the assembled media did too. Not one of the media assembled seemed to be interested in what was really happening in the community.
The most irritating part was hearing Mr Baillieu talk about not neglecting the west (a catch cry used cynically by the Liberals and ALP) and doing something about the St Albans level crossing. But where have the Liberals been in the past 10 years? Why have the Liberals put forward average candidates? Why haven’t they helped do something about public transport in the western suburbs? Where was Bernie Finn? Why didn’t the Liberals pre-select a local canidate?
Marcus and Les, who are genuinely in touch with the local issues , were the only candidates speaking with locals with ease about shared experiences. Jenny seemed like a mannequin standing next to Ted. These kinds of community actions drew a crowd rather quickly as the traffic built up through the lunch period.
I wonder if the people in the seat of Gippsland feel the same way about having a local person representing them?
Roll on polling day…now only 6 days away.
Filed under: Campaigns, Rants & Raves, elections | Tagged: ALP, ballot box, Brimbank, by-elections, Colleen Hartland, election promises, Gippsland, Greens, Jenny Matic, Kororoit, Les Twentyman, Liberals, local, local issues, Nationals, politics, Ted Baillieu, voters
