ANALYSIS
THE Member for Mildura was once against vaccination, returning the passenger train risks bringing more ice addicts here, and the Coalition actually only plans to build part of the hospital its leader promised to complete from scratch.
These are three things voters learned from three candidates at Monday’s Sunraysia Daily candidate forum at the SuniTAFE auditorium, but they arguably didn’t learn much more.
A week-and-half from the state election, in fact, just four of the 11 candidates from Mildura showed up to make their pitch to voters.
Those who did – incumbent independent Ali Cupper, The Nationals’ Jade Benham, independent candidate Glenn Milne and Greens candidate Katie Clements – appeared to actually agree on most things, even if they expressed that through language of political difference.
Certainly all agreed that the electorate was in desperate need of better health services and better transport, and just simply more attention from Spring Street, but none mounted a compelling argument as to how they were going to achieve these.
Four years as Mildura’s MP gave Ms Cupper the opportunity to use her record, which is in fact undeniably good for a politician without a direct voice in government, but she squandered that chance in her opening address by being unaware of the clock and running out of allotted time mid-speech.
For The Nationals, Ms Benham’s arguments hinged on the notion that anything the left side of politics could do, the right could do better, especially with the can-do attitude she sold as her personal strength.
Mr Milne, the Mildura councillor who is running as a conservative independent, was conservatively cautious.
Ms Clements, perhaps refreshingly, was honest about being unable to discuss specific topics on which she was not fully briefed.
She also showed admirable courage in saying she believed the Andrews Government had done the best it could in managing the pandemic, an opinion that’s clearly not popular this far from Melbourne and drew a gasp or two of astonishment from the audience.
Under questions from the floor, however, Ms Cupper, Ms Benham and Mr Milne all threw some unexpected twists into the election debate.
Discussing pandemic lockdowns, Ms Cupper said her own family’s experience with autism, and unsubstantiated but persistent claims that vaccines can cause this, had once left her determined her children would not be exposed to that perceived risk. A video of a baby suffering terribly from whooping cough had changed her mind.
On matters of transport, specifically the potential return of a passenger train to Mildura, Mr Milne’s left-fielder was a suggestion that because the old Vinelander was sometimes used by troublesome drunks, a new train might carry troublesome drug addicts. Whether buses were more likely to be junkie-free was not addressed.
Ms Benham supplied her surprise when she was asked about Opposition Leader Matthew Guy’s promise to build Mildura a new hospital, from scratch, for $750 million.
Since that pledge, the Coalition’s costings have been shredded by budgetary realty, and The Nationals’ candidate told the forum that the money would just get things started and the hospital would be built in stages, which is a big walk back from the original promise from the leader.
To the credit of all four candidates, however, they did at least show up and take questions from the public.
Notable absentees were Liberal candidate Paul Matheson, who has kept a low public profile since revelations of past indiscretions as a police officer derailed his campaign, and Labor candidate Stella Zigouras, who sent an apology and said she had a prior engagement.
What none of the attendees achieved, however, was that stand-out, vote-changing moment. They all pledged to listen and to work to achieve the things their community wants and needs but, while there’s no reason to question their sincerity, none seemed likely to convince any undecided voter that their way would be the best way.
But there’s still a week-and-a-half to go.
A video recording of the forum can be viewed on Sunraysia Daily’s Facebook page
