WITH the Federal election now announced and seven months of campaigning ahead of us, BDN editor Ben Smyth posed a series of questions to the three current candidates for the seat of Eden-Monaro.
Topics canvassed in part one of this special coverage include what each feel are the main issues for the electorate, how the Bega Valley fits in with their overall scheme and their plans for a long campaign period.
Don’t miss part two next Friday, where they speak about points of difference between the parties, their respective party’s plans on a national scale and why they feel they are the best person for the job.
Peter Hendy (Liberal)
What are the big issues as you see them in Eden-Monaro for this election year? Which will you be championing in your election campaign?
I have been campaigning hard across the electorate ever since I was endorsed as the Liberal candidate.
I have door-knocked homes and businesses and attended every country show.
I have talked to hundreds of people and the one common concern is the huge waste and the massive debt that the Labor government is creating.
People in Eden-Monaro have watched Labor turn $70billion in net assets left by the Howard government into $150billion in net debt in just five years.
Another has been the loss of control of our national borders and the effective surrender to the people smugglers.
Also people continually raise issues like roads, aged care, child care and hospital services.
We are offering a suite of policies to build a strong Australia.
My job is to let the people in the electorate know what they are and assure them that we can deliver them.
If the people of Eden-Monaro wish to change the government they need to vote in a Liberal member of Parliament.
If they stick with Labor candidate they will simply be risking three more years of a Gillard government.
How does the Bega district factor into your campaign for Eden-Monaro? What plans/policies do you have that will directly affect the Bega Valley? What assurances can you give such policies will be implemented?
Eden-Monaro has been a bellwether seat for some 40 years.
It has voted consistently for the party that goes on to form government.
This is not the time to break this historic distinction.
The Liberal Party regards this seat as a “must win” for the federal election.
Thus the people of the Bega district are critical in our national plans.
Much of the recent policy credit that Labor claims in the Bega district has principally been delivered by the NSW O’Farrell government.
The hard work of Andrew Constance, as Liberal Member for Bega, has been instrumental in the infrastructure development in the region.
As the Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro I will be working closely with Andrew Constance to continue his good work and hopefully do my part from federal parliament.
One recent issue on my priority list is doing what I can to fix the totally inadequate telecommunications services suffered in the region.
People on the coast complain to me constantly about the poor services they suffer from including unreliable mobile telephone coverage, internet connection and EFTPOS lines.
From my discussions with scores of residents I know these poor telecommunications services are detrimentally affecting local businesses, farmers, tourists and visitors to the point it is now disrupting the district’s economy, particularly during the peak tourism period.
The NBN is taking too long to be rolled out and costs too much.
But on top of that, it is not prioritising the areas like the Bega district.
As far as the district is concerned “NBN” might as well stand for “no broadband nearby”.
I can assure the community the Coalition is committed to upgrading broadband for consumers.
The Coalition’s plan for better broadband will encourage competition among infrastructure providers rather than stamp it out.
What public profile will your campaign entail? I notice TV advertising has begun and electorate offices are popping up. Will there be public meetings, regional tours, event appearances, etc?
The Liberal campaign has already started.
We have contacted as many people in the community with our positive message for a stronger more prosperous Australia.
However, that is a process that will continue until election day.
We have already run TV ads and expect to do more in the future.
We are currently organising a whole series of public forums where Liberal and National shadow ministers will visit the electorate to discuss important issues like health care, ageing, small business and immigration.
I am more than willing to participate in community events to debate the issues.
I am currently attending the country shows and hope to appear at all of them including the upcoming Cobargo Show and the Bega Show.
Mike Kelly (Labor)
What are the big issues as you see them in Eden-Monaro for this election year? Which will you be championing in your election campaign?
I feel this is the most important election in my lifetime because there is so much at stake, especially for Eden-Monaro, which faces a huge threat from Tony Abbott’s policies.
For starters, if Tony Abbott was elected we would stand to lose the NBN and all of the associated health, educational, business and individual benefits that will be so critical to a region like ours.
The progress we have made through our massive investment in health infrastructure would be squandered, as the Coalition turns its focus to looking after the major centres as it always has.
Our National Plan for School Improvement and the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) would also be lost.
On top of that, Eden-Monaro would suffer terribly from the 20,000 public service jobs that Mr Abbott has flagged he will cut in the ACT and Queanbeyan.
In many ways, these employees are the lifeblood of tourism for both the high country and the coast, and Mr Abbott’s stated objective has the potential to send the region into recession.
We know Mr Abbott would also dismantle the Clean Energy Future framework, which has already seen $1billion in investment flow to Eden-Monaro.
The Liberals would therefore undermine billions of dollars in new industries from which the region stands to benefit.
As well as continuing to champion all of these monumental and important reforms, I will be working to ensure further growth of our tourist industry and key infrastructure at the Port of Eden; I will pursue continued growth of the renewable energy and research and development sectors in our region; I will continue to be a strong advocate for Eden-Monaro as a destination for business investment; and strive to complete the vision I have for health and education in the region.
How does the Bega district factor into your campaign for Eden-Monaro? What plans/policies do you have that will directly affect the Bega Valley? What assurances can you give such policies will be implemented?
The Bega Valley is a key administrative hub for the economic potential of the entire region, and is central to our health, education and tourism goals.
The huge investments we have made in the Bega Bypass and South East Regional Hospital testify to this, and it is so exciting to see these projects underway.
The bypass will be completed in early 2014, while we will turn the first sod on the hospital in March.
That hospital will be like nothing we have seen before in Eden-Monaro – as well as the obvious boost to health services, the attached training facilities will help us to build the medical workforce for the future.
Going forward, I am committed to the realisation of Eden as a commercial port and to maximising the potential of Eden as a tourist destination.
We will achieve this through infrastructure upgrades, of course, but also by capitalising on the natural assets and cultural history of the region.
The staged opening of the Bundian Way this year is an exciting part of this.
The Bega Valley will be such an important destination for renewable energy investment.
We are seeing wave energy being explored at Eden, plans for the new hospital to be powered by geothermal and companies like Pambula Engineering exporting their innovative waste-harvesting technology to the world.
Pambula Engineering has just attracted a significant investment from large waste treatment organisation AKT Evolution.
The benefits of renewable energy for our region are vast and multi-faceted, and this is only the beginning.
However, we need both vision and government support to reach out and grab this future.
I think the people of the Bega Valley already know how committed I am in this respect.
My office is always accessible if people wish to raise any Federal Government matters I can assist with.
To facilitate this, I have recently opened an office in Carp St, Bega, to service the Bega Valley and Far South Coast.
What public profile will your campaign entail? I notice TV advertising has begun and electorate offices are popping up. Will there be public meetings, regional tours, event appearances, etc?
There will be the usual sequence of public debates, Ministerial visits, country shows and forums, but mainly I will continue to work hard for the region.
The best way to campaign, I feel, is to do the work and deliver real outcomes.
Catherine Moore (Greens)
What are the big issues as you see them in Eden-Monaro for this election year? Which will you be championing in your election campaign?
Climate change remains the biggest issue of our time and it is already starting to affect everyone, so it will be of great concern if there is any party or candidate who does not take climate change seriously.
Recognising how it permeates all our lives through health impacts, electricity and insurance costs for example, and taking positive action by way of investment in renewable energy programs, will filter through to a range of policy areas and benefit everyone in the electorate.
As with every previous election in which I have been involved, the closure of the chip mill is a major issue.
The Greens presented a plan for softwood processing to state government and opposition candidates in the 1999 state election, and some of that has now been taken up, but we need to go further.
How does the Bega district factor into your campaign for Eden-Monaro? What plans/policies do you have that will directly affect the Bega Valley? What assurances can you give such policies will be implemented?
The Greens’ campaign in Eden-Monaro takes in all parts of the electorate, not just those that hold the highest populations.
We need to recognise that native forest woodchipping is happening at a cost to taxpayers and the local economy will not collapse without the chip mill.
There is great potential for innovative activities.
Why not look at making Eden a port? We could also invest in solar and wave technology while looking more positively at wind power for the region, with emphasis on finding suitable sites for community wind farms.
In other parts of the world wherever there is investment in renewables, hundreds of thousands of jobs are created.
The move to a Green economy will create many employment opportunities for people across Eden-Monaro, including in the Bega district.
Properly funding public health and education services and creating and/or increasing public transport options in the electorate will also provide more jobs.
Strengthening rather than weakening TAFE will allow people to continue study, work and live close to home.
Some of the farmers I have talked to have identified some weaknesses with the carbon farming initiative, but there is big potential for them if we can iron those weaknesses out.
I can give no assurances that any of these policies will be implemented, but I do know that the more Greens there are in Parliament, the more opportunities there will be for our initiatives to receive support.
What public profile will your campaign entail? I notice TV advertising has begun and electorate offices are popping up. Will there be public meetings, regional tours, event appearances, etc?
We are unlikely to have the funds for TV advertising, at least at electorate level, but in any case it is more important to attend meetings and meet people at markets and other events.
We are lucky in Eden-Monaro that there are opportunities in the print and electronic media for getting the word out about what The Greens have to offer, and hopefully ABC SE Radio will repeat its program of meet-the-candidate events, which were a great success in the electorate last time.
Community groups will no doubt put on their own events and I hope they will invite all candidates, not just those from the ALP and Coalition.
A web presence remains an important tool for letting people know about policies and actions, and that includes the GreensEdenMonaro Facebook page.