Candidates in this month’s Victorian state election have faced questions from locals at a community meeting at Koyuga Hall on Wednesday.
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With the election just over a week away, members from the community got the opportunity to ask questions of lower and upper house candidates at the meet-and-greet session.
Lower house candidates for Murray Plains Peter Walsh of the National Party and the Freedom Party’s Katia Bish were there, as well as upper house candidates for the Northern Region Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell from Pauline Hanson's One Nation, Mark Jones from the Angry Victorians Party and Tim Quilty of the Liberal Democrats.
The eastern border of the Murray Plains electorate sits between Undera and Mooroopna.
Other lower house candidates, Damien Hurrell of the Labor Party, Glenys Leung from the Animal Justice Party and Greens candidate John Brownstein, were also invited, as too were upper house candidates Josh Knight of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, and the Freedom Party’s Chris Neil and Henk Wallenborn.
All were unable to attend the meeting.
Current Member for Murray Plains Mr Walsh said events such as the one at Koyuga were crucial for the community and politicians.
“To my mind, all politics is local,” Mr Walsh said.
“So these sort of events and interacting with local communities is probably the most important job a politician does. It helps to understand what is happening in those communities and what the issues are.”
The meeting was a chance for the candidates to share their message before voters head to the polls on Saturday, November 26, while those same people who will cast their ballot also got to ask questions to those seeking to represent them.
Questions focused on flood preparedness and water management, the health system, fighting corruption, term limits for politicians, bureaucracy and threats of disease to livestock.
Four of the five candidates there — Ms Bish (Freedom Party), Ms Tyrrell (One Nation), Mr Jones (Angry Vics) and Mr Quilty (Liberal Democrats) — said they were strongly against vaccine mandates, while Mr Walsh (Nationals) said his party supported them in healthcare settings.
“Drop the bloody mandates,” Ms Tyrrell said, a comment which drew applause from the audience.
“Let’s get our trained, skilled Australian workers back into hospitals.”
Mr Quilty described the mandates as a “massive abuse of human rights”, while Mr Jones said “bloody mandates have to go”.
Ms Bish said: “We need to lift these mandates. We need to move on and give health professionals back a voice.”
Mr Walsh acknowledged his stance on the topic was different to that of the other candidates at the forum.
“We support mandates in the health system and the aged care system to protect the people and the patients there,” Mr Walsh said.
“But we do not support mandates in any other field of the health sector.”
Flooding has had a huge impact across the region in recent weeks, affecting towns and inundating thousands of homes.
Voters asked questions on water management, such as improving dams, and what could be done to better protect against flooding in the future.
“One Nation definitely supports the proposal of the expansion of the Big Buffalo dam wall, we need to invest in our dams,” Ms Tyrrell said.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Authority certainly needs a thorough going over.
“I am here for the water and I am not going to give up until I see the water managed in this region correctly.”
Seeking his sixth term in Victorian Parliament, Mr Walsh said he agreed on Big Buffalo, adding that he wanted to see changes to Lake Eppalock and the way levees were maintained.
“There should be a change to the dam wall at Eppalock so you can pre-release water, it is not designed to release water like other reservoirs,” Mr Walsh said.
“The Andrews Government policy that rural levee banks should fall into decline and disappear is totally wrong.
“There are levees that need to be maintained by government and by the community because they protect more than just farmers.”
Candidates spoke and fielded questions for more than an hour, while also chatting with voters in attendance both before and after the meeting.
Marion Moncrieff, one of the voters who attended the meeting, said she was glad to be able to speak with the candidates face-to-face.
“It was good to be able to discuss a variety of issues and for them all to have an opportunity to share their views and for us to learn more about them as well,” Ms Moncrieff said.
“I asked two questions and I felt like they both got answered appropriately.”
She said the health system was the most important topic for her at this election.
“I feel like that is something that needs addressing ASAP,” she said.
A male attendee said meetings such as the one held at Koyuga were a great chance for members of the community to feel involved with politics.
“When people ask what you can you do about the current situation in politics, you can turn up to events like this and ask questions,” he said.
“It is an opportunity to ask questions to people who are going to have some sort of role in our future.
“Today went quite well, considering it was low key and only a small gathering. It gives us a little bit of a plug in and a voice on what our concerns are.”