VOTERS in next month’s Federal election will have the opportunity to hear from and question their Wannon candidates first-hand, when The Spectator hosts a candidate forum in Hamilton on Monday, 9 May.

Co-organiser, Spectator Sports Editor and journalist, Adam Hill said at time of going to press, seven of the eight candidates vying for the seat had been contacted

“Our news group has an extensive readership which covers well over half of the Wannon electorate … we took this as an opportunity to extend our service and provide a chance for readers to hear from candidates, in their own words,” he said.

“We are pleased to say that so far, seven of the eight candidates have accepted our invitation to take part in the forum – we have been so far unable to contact the Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party candidate.

“We look forward to hosting them next week and hearing their plans for the future in Wannon.”

Mr Hill said the forum would comprise a two-minute opening statement from each candidate, a question-and-answer session, with questions from the floor and each candidate given 90 seconds to respond, before another two minutes for each candidate to give closing comments.

“We hope that everyone from the district will take this opportunity to meet with and question the candidates and that the discussion is succinct and on-topic,” Mr Hill said.

The forum will be held at the Monivae College PAC, starting at 7pm.

Candidates have already faced inquisition from residents in the north of the electorate, at a forum held last week in Ararat.

ABC Ballarat’s Steve Martin chaired the debate, where more than 100 people took the opportunity to see the candidates in-person and another 2000-plus viewing a video recording of the debate, posted on Facebook.

Greens candidate, Hilary McAllister, independent Alex Dyson, UAP’s Craige Kensen, Liberal Democrat Amanda Mead, and Labor’s Gilbert Wilson joined the incumbent, the Liberal Party’s Dan Tehan, for the event.

Organisers of that forum said they were also unable to contact the One Nation candidate to invite him to participate, as well as independent Graham Garner.

Although the audience was asked to frame questions from an Ararat perspective, most were largely around national issues, including the re-introduction of a carbon tax, free trade agreements, national security, and the education curriculum.