WITH one week to go until the State Election on November 26, The Spectator asked the seven Legislative Assembly/Lower House candidates for the Lowan District to provide a short campaign statement to enable constituents to know them better.

We are also covering the South West Coast District separately (see page 8) and the end of this article has a list of the 57 Legislative Council/Upper House candidates vying for the five positions available for the Western Victoria Region.

Townhall meeting: regional concerns and freedom recurrent themes

Last week, Hamilton Regional Business Association (HRBA) ran an evening townhall meeting at Monivae College to which all local candidates were invited – however, the only Lowan candidate to attend was Independent, Amanda Mead, while seven Upper House candidates turned up – Terri Pryse-Smith, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation; Beverley McArthur and Joe McCracken, Liberal Party; Chris Burson, Angry Victorians Party (AVP); Paul Barker, Liberal Democratic Party; Natalie Failla, United Australia Party, and Ben Collyer, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.

Apologies were received from Emma Kealy, Dr Tamasin Ramsay, Richard Etherton and Mick Monaghan for Lowan, and also Andy Meddick for Western Victoria.

Each candidate was given an opportunity to introduce themselves and speak to their major concerns and motivations.

As the sole Lower House candidate present, Ms Mead was first to speak and criticised the sitting member, Emma Kealy – “(she) can’t even show up tonight” – before singling out the condition of roads and Hamilton Base Hospital as among the issues that mattered for her.

“Let’s liberate and lift our communities back to where they once were by voting for real people, not party puppets that care more about furthering their own individual careers than our actual communities,” she said.

“Lowan stretches far and wide, supporting several key industries including agriculture, mining, large and small businesses.

“But most importantly (I’m) all about the people that live in our communities.”

The first of the Upper House candidates, Terri Pryse-Smith from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation said as a former high school and TAFE teacher, and then 20 years with an agricultural business in animal reproduction, she appreciated the challenges of rural life and was scathing in her view of the State Government and their performance in education and health.

“I know how to run a company, I know how to look after staff, I know how to balance the books,” she said.

“The reason I’m running is because I can no longer stand by and watch this radical socialist Labor Government ruin our state.

“I can no longer stand by and watch our children poisoned by critical race, and critical gender theory, and catastrophic climate change nonsense.

“I will no longer stand and watch my fellow Victorians (be) victims to government overreach.”

Liberal Party candidates, Beverley McArthur and Joe McCracken, both emphasised individual freedoms as important, with the latter highlighting that all people should be “empowered to take charge of our own lives to be masters of our own ship”.

“I like fighting the battle of ideas, not the battle of personalities and power,” Ms McArthur said.

“What we’ve lost over recent times is the ability to logically debate philosophy and policy in a sensible and cohesive way – in a way that we can all get engaged in it and we can all have a say without rancor and fear of failure and if somebody stands up and says they’re opposed to this, or they’re for this – if you’re not part of a conventional mob thinking, you’re out.

“I’m basically in politics to get the government out of your lives. I want to get government out of your bedroom and your church, out of your school and out of your business.”

Mr McCracken echoed the sentiments and was also critical of “city-centric” governance he believed did “not care about country people”.

“Where is the Labor Party tonight?” he asked, looking around.

“I was born in a small town called Beaufort, just west of Ballarat. I live in Colac now, I’ve never lived in Melbourne.

“I chose to live in country Victoria because I love it. You’ve got clean fresh air, you’ve got a good sense of community and you don’t have all those latte-sipping hipsters in Melbourne telling you to turn your power off.

“I do not support the education system going far left into these areas of indoctrination. I teach my students how to think not what to think. Because it’s up to the individual to decide what’s good for them, not for me, not for the government, not for anyone else.”

Chris Burson from the Angry Victorians Party spoke of his military and police service and how as a teenager he looked up to politicians “just assuming these people were a lot smarter than me, they knew a lot more than me, that they had my best interests at heart”, but over time he came to think “bureaucratic systems” impeded helping people and squandered tax dollars.

“The bureaucracy of everything, it really got to me, the more I could see it,” he said.

“The government wastes so much money … what are we doing, taking all this tax when we’re not even using it well?

“(Parliament’s) supposed to be a thinktank, where all the intelligent people went and now it’s just a bunch of bought puppets.”

In what was quickly becoming a theme for the evening, Liberal Democratic Party candidate, Paul Barker began by saying the “driving factor for me, being involved in politics (is) I just want to be left alone” and spoke of the minor party’s success in having federal and state representation for 13 of its 21 years.

“Government is the single worst source of interference in private lives and in operating businesses,” he said.

“In my pursuit of being left alone, I found that the Liberal Democrats, a libertarian party, are the single best way to move Australia and the state in a direction of more prosperity, and individual liberty.

“If we continue down this path of voting for the status quo … it will just embolden the major parties to continue governing for their own power at the cost of our liberty.

“They continue to tax us heavily, regulate our life and businesses to the point that we have to work longer and harder to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table.”

United Australia Party candidate, Natalie Failla said, “Victorians were tired of dirty politics” and singled out the State Government as “not representing us” and looking at the rural-based audience added, “it is like you guys don’t exist”; she also spoke strongly to the issue of freedom.

“Victorians are sick of the government telling us how to live our lives, locking us in our homes like prisoners, and telling us what we can do, when we can do it, and how we can do it,” she said.

“Politicians have no accountability, especially career politicians. But I think a person representing and elected to serve the community should be accountable for their actions.

“I’m sick of the government treating us like we are slaves to rule over, shooting us with rubber bullets, bashing and choking people if they stand up to tyranny, arresting pregnant women in their homes for Facebook posts and the only reason they have the power is we gave it to them.”

Ben Collyer of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party concluded the candidate statements, describing himself as an “avid hunter” and spoke of how activism directed at him and “the far left … interfering” with standard rural practices had led him to be more involved in politics.

“It was that point in my life where I said, ‘if you don’t stand up for the things that you love doing, you’re going to lose everything,” he said.

“Every farmer out here cares about the land (and) cares about the fundamentals of their animals, the fundamentals of how their property’s run … because at the end of the day, if it’s not good, you can’t make a profit.

“We want to remove the green tape and the red tape around agriculture to give people in the country the right to do what they need to do on their places.”

Question time

A small crowd asked questions ranging from the behaviour of politicians to the equitable allocation of funding to rural electorates, skill shortages, housing, ecosystem concerns including dingoes in the Grampians, lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

HRBA board member, Michael Byrne, acknowledged “the attendance was low” and attributed it to “the real disconnect the local electorate has with this State Election” but also noted “not one of the left side of politics attended”.

“It was evident that many candidates take our region for granted and did not respond to HRBA’s invitation, but thank you to those who did send apologies,” he said.

Mr Byrne said the lack of funding for the Hamilton Base Hospital was clearly in the minds of many, as was the “huge spiralling government debt” and the state of the road network.

A copy of the video recording of the meeting made by AVP can be accessed on The Spectator Facebook page.

Lowan District Legislative Assembly/Lower House candidate statements

Emma Kealy (incumbent) – National Party

“It has been an honour and extremely rewarding to work alongside our community in the 59th Parliament of Victoria. In this time I have helped to secure more than $160 million of investment into local projects including Baimbridge College, Hamilton Parklands School, Pedrina Park, Melville Oval, and the Grampians Peaks Trail.

Being your local Member of Parliament is much more than just fighting for a fair deal for our region. Even though Lowan now represents about 19 per cent of the state by landmass, I pride myself on being approachable and accessible, and always willing to help make great ideas become a reality, find solutions, and help fix issues that matter to locals.”

Amanda Mead – Independent

“Lowan is being ignored and treated as if we don’t exist. Resulting in a lack of fundamental funding for necessities for road maintenance, healthcare and our rail line. My main aim is to secure ongoing future funding for Lowan, this can ONLY be done by making Lowan marginal. Party lines don’t work out here anymore. The Nationals have had years to fix things and they have no respect for our community anymore. This was evident at the recent Hamilton forum when I was the ONLY Lower House candidate to attend. I plan to put Lowan first in every decision made.”

Tamasin Ramsay - Animal Justice Party

“I commit to being a true servant of the people, the animals, and the environment of Lowan, and to achieve greater cohesion between all sectors. As I have been given two ears and one mouth, I will use them in proper proportion. We are a diverse mix of people here, yet we all breathe the same air and walk the same earth. There is more that unites us than divides us. I will work with anyone and everyone without exception, bringing collaborative politics to Lowan, ensuring combative politics is left to the history books.”

Richard Etherton, Angry Victorians Party; Robert Coleman, Family First; Mick Monaghan, Australian Labor Party; and Richard Lane, Australian Greens, were also contacted for a statement but did not reply before deadline.

Western Victoria Region Legislative Council/Upper House candidates

Chris Burson, Richard Beeck - Angry Victorians Party

Andy Meddick, Hannah Wilshier - Animal Justice Party

Jacinta Ermacora, Gayle Tierney, Megan Bridger-Darling, Sue Pavlovich, Heather Stokes - Australian Labor Party

Geoff Collins, Simone Fisher - Companions and Pets Party

Costa Di Biase, Ron Skruzny - Democratic Labour Party

Stuart Grimley, Simone O’Brien - Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party

Dean Cronkwright, Chioma Ikeh - Family First Victoria

Antun Kovac, Flor Vanessa Becerra-Kovac - Freedom Party of Victoria

Emma Sinclair, Olivia Hurley - Fiona Patten’s Reason Party 

Constantine Lazos, Angelica Brennfleck - Health Australia Party

Andrew Dowling, Melanie Humphrey - Legalise Cannabis Victoria

Julia Mcgrath, Paul Barker - Liberal Democratic Party

Bev Mcarthur, Joe McCracken, Angela Shearman - Liberal Party

Anita Rank, Robert Letts - National Party

Cecilia Gomez Benitez, Vijaykumar Kachhia, Hardik Bipinchandra Dave, Jaymik Mahendrakumar Patel - New Democrats

Terri Elizabeth Pryse-Smith, Sabine De Pyle - Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

Tosh-Jake Finnigan, Ismail Efe Celikdogen, Sinan Orhan - Restore Democracy Sack Dan Andrews Party

Ben Collyer, Graeme Standen - Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party Victoria

Madeleine Wearne, Robert    Pascoe - Sustainable Australia Party – Stop Overdevelopment / Corruption

Sarah Mansfield, John Barnes, Judith Baldacchino, Eva van der Vlies, Linda Zibell - The Australian Greens

Antonela Kearns, Eddie Dunn - Transport Matters Party

Natalie Valerie Failla, Keith Raymond - United Australia Party

Madilyn Gorman, Abbey Randall - Victorian Socialists

Storm Hellmuth, Independent

In the first three days of early voting in the State election, more than 400,000 Victorians have voted in person, and another half a million postal votes have been mailed to voters.

Electoral commissioner, Warwick Gately, said that he has been impressed with the number of people getting out early to vote, and figures were considerably higher than for the equivalent period in 2018.

“We responded to voter feedback for an increased number of early voting centres and increased hours of operation for this election,” he said.

“While expecting higher numbers of early voters, this has surpassed our expectations.”

Mr Gately said while he was pleased with the early turnout, he was extremely disappointed by instances of poor behaviour by some party workers and campaign volunteers at a handful of early voting centres.

“Party and other campaign workers play an important role at elections and have the right to represent the interests of their party or candidate,” he said.

“Where I draw the line is when voters, election staff, other volunteers and nearby traders feel unsafe or intimidated when trying to vote, work or play their role in the election.

“Our people have been trained to ask for collaboration and a harmonious environment. If their requests for cooperation are not met and the safety of others is at risk, I will seek police intervention, restrict volunteer numbers or take other measures open to me.”

“Our primary role is the conduct of a fair and impartial election, not arbitrating altercations.”

Local early voting is available at 111 Brown St Hamilton, opposite the council offices – visit vec.vic.gov.au for opening times.