Candidates for the seat of Shepparton at this month’s state election have locked political horns during a forum in Mooroopna.
Hosted by the Committee for Greater Shepparton and the Shepparton News, the forum involved five of the nine candidates standing for election for the lower house seat.
They included The Nationals’ Kim O’Keeffe, Diane Teasdale of the Freedom Party of Victoria, sitting State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed, Ian Christoe from the Australian Greens and the Liberal Party’s Cheryl Hammer.
Candidates who did not take part were Alison White from Family First Victoria, Labor’s Liam Cowan, Sueie McGrath from Labour DLP and Katherine Taylor of the Animal Justice Party.
The format for the evening consisted of the candidates being asked a series of questions by the two moderators, Committee for Greater Shepparton chief executive Lindy Nieuwenhuizen and Shepparton News deputy editor Max Stainkamph, with each candidate given equal time to answer them.
The questions were generated from public submissions made prior to the forum and covered a range of issues important to people in the seat, including the cost of living, housing, employment and health services.
Ms Sheed said her two terms as an independent member had achieved much for the seat.
“It’s been just so good to be in a position where you can work with the government of the day to deliver on a whole range of things that we needed,” she said.
“When I stood in 2014, there were a number of things that I wanted to do and I can honestly say I’ve delivered them all, except the (Shepparton) bypass, and that’s certainly on the list. It’s one of the reasons I want to go back.”
Mr Christoe spoke about his two main passions, which he said were not being addressed by the major parties.
“I want to see a fair and just society and I don’t feel that’s being fully addressed,” he said.
“I want to see a healthy and secure environment, the natural environment and as a farmer, I think one of the biggest qualities is one, that we need to nurture the land we work, but we should also leave it in a better state than we receive it and I believe that applies to society and how we treat the wider environment.”
One of Ms Sheed’s main rivals for the seat, Ms Hammer, said as a small business owner she was backing small business and supporting another secondary school option for the Shepparton-Mooroopna area.
“I’m a mother of three young men so I have a front row seat to the challenges about housing, both availability and price, meaningful, full-time employment and the cost of living, which prevents them from saving for their future,” she said.
Another candidate considered a strong chance to win the seat from Ms Sheed is former City of Greater Shepparton mayor Ms O’Keeffe, who said her experience in that role had prepared her well to be the region’s state member.
“Coming out of the pandemic and coming out of the floods I believe I’m a passionate and really determined leader that will have our community work together to meet the many challenges we’re facing right now,” she said.
“It’s an incredible time for us and I think it’s a time for change in leadership.”
Ms Teasdale said her concern about lockdowns and vaccine mandates drove her to stand for the Freedom Party.
“The overriding of our constitution by forcing people to have vaccinations is a big concern to me,” she said.
“I’m concerned that the censorship from the media on what was going on has given people false ideas of how many people are concerned about this. The forcing of young people to be vaccinated is very disturbing to me.”
Both Ms Hammer, as a Liberal, and Ms O’Keeffe, as a National, suggested they could achieve more if elected than Ms Sheed as an independent.
“We do have a member at the moment who is more a Labor voting member and I think in opposition we would be able to strongly advocate the needs of the region similar to an independent member, but also be able to hold them to account if they’re not delivering,” Ms Hammer said.
Ms O’Keeffe, who in her role as mayor worked closely with Ms Sheed during the COVID-19 lockdowns, said the sitting member could have done more to represent the region during that time.
“I certainly would have advocated more strongly in regard to the lockdowns,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
“I would have been perhaps a lot more on the ground and a lot more vocal to the impact that was done and we’ve seen it is going to do for a very long time.”
Ms Sheed, though, said hundreds of millions of dollars had been put into the redevelopment of Goulburn Valley Health with more on the way through the construction of a mental health unit and dismissed claims she was too close to the Andrews Labor government, saying it was better to build relationships with the government.
She said it was unlikely Labor would lose 18 seats and government and, if elected, she would continue to work with it for the benefit of the residents in the seat.
“I will continue to work with them (the government) to try and deliver for Shepparton, to represent the interests of the community, and to do it in a way that doesn’t mean stamping one foot and folding my arms,” Ms Sheed said.
A recording of the forum can be found here: https://vimeo.com/771114709/b01fa4dd3e