Meet the Casey Electorate Candidates
A great event that you can now watch back
Last night’s online forum was a great opportunity for residents in the Casey electorate to hear from the candidates. Six candidates gave their time to explain their intentions should they be the next member for Casey, those being:
Aaron Violi - Liberal party
Jenny Game - Greens party
Bill Brindle - Labor party
Claire Ferres Miles - Independent
Anthony Bellve - United Australia party
Chris Field - Australian Federation party
Below are the questions we asked on the pressing issues.
Climate change
Climate change has caused substantial damages, and increasingly irreversible losses. In addition, increases in frequency and intensity of extremes have reduced food and water security. In recent years, Casey has been devastated by bushfires and storms.
We asked:
What will you / your party propose in relation to assisting communities to respond effectively and promptly to environmental disasters?
and
What will you do to help those still displaced after the June 9th storm?
Cost of Living
This topic has been considered the hottest topic for the election and with todays interest rate increase, it is more important than ever.
We asked:
What will you / your party do to assist Australians to cope with large rises in the cost of living?
Health
People with disability, their families and carers were promised a new funding approach that focused on supporting people’s independence and participation in social, economic and community life, and promoted choice and control.
But instead of improving access and reducing out-of-pocket expenses, changes to the NDIS have made it harder for people who experience multiple and intersecting forms of disadvantage, adding another layer of stress, complexity and anguish for people with disability seeking support.
We asked:
How will you improve access to support for people with a disability and/or suffering with mental illness?
Childcare
In a recent ABC article on childcare blackspots, it described this entire region as a childcare ‘desert’ with between 15.43 and 15.87 children competing for every 1 childcare place. Some families are currently on childcare waitlists anywhere from 6 to 18months for available spots. Others are choosing between childcare options unsuitable for their needs and not being able to pay their mortgage.
We asked:
How will you / your party increase access to childcare?
Gender Equality
So far this year, 18 women have been killed from domestic violence and more than 7,000 women escaping a violent domestic homes have been turned down on assisted housing. Currently women represent 51% of the population while their representation in parliament sits at 30.1%.
We asked:
What steps will you / your party take to address DV and support victims?
Telecommunications
Telecommunications is essential to the way we live and work. It should be considered an essential service. During severe weather and disaster events, the telecommunications are essential for the safety of our community. In the recent Connecting Victoria Engagement Report, the region overwhelmingly responded to having poor telecommunications connectivity however as yet there has been no promises to improve the telecommunications in this area
We asked:
How will you improve the area’s telecommunication and utility access?
Housing
We asked:
Casey has a housing and homelessness crisis. What are your plans to address it locally, to protect all members of our community?
It was a fantastic evening, expertly chaired by Jeaniene Spink. Thank you again to Jeaniene, Catherine Lockwood (behind the scenes), the candidates and all those who attended.
You can view the recording here
You can read the close caption of the event here.
A run down of the policies of the major party policies
We are grateful to one of our members for researching these topics as reported by the ABC. See below for a run down on what the 3 main parties have to say.