MORDIALLOC
Suburbs include Keysborough, Bangholme.
Held by Tim Richardson (ALP) 62.9% 2-party preferred
1. Where do you live and how long have you lived there?
2. Why did you choose to run for the seat?
3. Why are you the best candidate for Mordialloc?
4. Biggest three issues in your electorate and how will you tackle them?
5. How would you tackle the shortage of affordable homes in Greater Dandenong?
6. What’s your view on calls for a new high school in Keysborough South?
Phillip Pease (Liberal Party)
Age: 32
Occupation: Electorate Officer.
1. I’ve lived in Mentone for the past six years.
2. The people of Mordialloc deserve better local representation and a strong voice in State Parliament. We’ve been denied representation and common sense for far too long on a number of issues, including level crossing removals, dredging of the Mordialloc Creek, upgraded facilities like our local CFA station in Keysborough and poor planning approval. That’s why I’m running – to represent our local community and be their strong voice as part of the Liberal Team that has Real Solutions for all Victorians.
3. I value integrity, hard work and actual community consultation. My experience in community engagement and volunteering over many years has given me the tools and knowledge to deliver for Mordialloc and fight for better outcomes.
4. Mordialloc deserves better health, education and emergency services. With our growing population, we need services to keep up with the demand. That’s why we’ve committed $5.34m to invest in Keysborough Gardens Primary School, $7m into a brand-new, state-of-the-art Keysborough CFA Hub for our amazing local emergency volunteers and have a plan to fix the health system after years of neglect by the current government without raising taxes.
5. An incoming Liberal Government has Real Solutions to address the shortfall of affordable housing. We will help families by cutting stamp duty for first-home buyers for properties up to $1m. Under our changes, families getting into the market will pay zero dollars in stamp duty. To compliment this, If elected later this month, a Matt Guy led Government will unlock 150,000 extra lots of land across Melbourne and regional Victoria as part of our Long-Term Economic Plan.
6. I support the community and their calls for a new high-school in Keysborough South. I’ve listened to many residents who have raised this issue and I have already brought this matter to the attention of the Shadow Minister for Education and if elected, will fight hard for an additional high school.
xxxx
Daniel Lessa (Greens)
Age: 45
Occupation: Quality Engineering Architect in IT Consulting
1. I live in Mordialloc since 2021. Before that I used to live in Elwood
2. Politics is the way we decide to coexist as a society, to define our own rules from which we must all follow. Instead of complaining about the status quo, I decided to take a more active role and contribute with my ideas, my time and my effort to improve and serve our community, and started doing so in our Kingston Greens branch, where I play the role of co-convenor and have the pleasure of interacting with other likeminded people, all working extremely hard for free, on their own spare time purely because we believe in our causes. I don’t think politics should be a career for life, but I do believe we all benefit as a society if most of us at some point contribute to our own politics, sharing our ideas and taking initiative from time to time.
3. I believe that the Greens party has the best set of policies for Mordialloc and for the South Eastern region to tackle the urgent issues of climate crisis, increased cost of living and housing affordability and the need to modernize our economy to work for the people, instead of corporations.
I live locally, with my partner and our 3 kids and it is on my best interest that our community thrives economically and socially and that we can build a better and more affordable future for our children, together.
If elected, I will hold frequent consultation sessions with our community to ensure I am working on our communities’ best interests with a high level of transparency and accountability.
Having said that, I don’t believe we should vote for individuals, but for plans and policies. If you believe, as I do, that the Greens policies are indeed the best option in this election, then I humbly ask for your vote on November 26th for the Mordialloc electoral district and for Alex Breskin as your candidate for the South-Eastern Region.
4. 1) Cost of living
The Greens have a plan to improve the standard of living for Victorians with more affordable housing, and cheaper energy, education and transport.
We will invest to provide lower energy prices and build affordable housing, while also creating tens of thousands of new quality jobs in renewable energy, building affordable homes, restoring nature and in the caring professions such as mental and dental healthcare and more teachers and community services.
We will also push for higher wages for teachers, nurses and other workers that provide essential public services, all of whom impacted by the current government’s 1.5% wages cap for non-executive public sector workers. As a result of increasing inflation, these workers are experiencing a real wages cut.
These initiatives will be funded by making big corporations pay their fair share of taxes, including doubling the royalty rates for coal, gas and oil, and increasing the online betting tax to 20%
2) Housing affordability
Victoria has a housing crisis, with rents rising three to four times faster than wages and too many people are locked out of owning a home of their own.
Our public housing system has been neglected, with more than 100,000 Victorians waiting for a home, and tens of thousands more experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.
To tackle the housing crisis, we need to end the special treatment for big property developers. Governments give big property developers tax breaks and special deals, handing them huge profits instead of making sure everyone can have an affordable home.
The Labor Government caved to property developers and scrapped its plan to make them pay for more affordable housing and has sold off public housing to developers.
The Greens will push to end out-of-control rent rises, make property developers pay their fair share for affordable homes and ban political donations from property developers.
We can make housing affordable. Victoria needs a housing system that puts people before profit.
3) Climate Crisis
The Greens have a plan to get Victoria off coal and gas (which are the leading causes of the climate crisis), protect workers and create jobs rolling out renewables.
Labor and the Liberals are pouring more fuel on the fire by backing more coal and gas. Labor is fast-tracking gas drilling next to the 12 Apostles, in the wild Southern Ocean, and it doesn’t have a plan to get out of coal.
The Greens plan to tackle the climate crisis includes a big build of renewable energy for a 100% renewable Victoria by 2030, that will create more than 50,000 new jobs and every household will save money on their energy bills. This plan will also protect all gas and cola workers with a guaranteed job.
Our plan also pushes for climate friendly transport policies, such as:
– More frequent and high-quality public transport services.
– More funding for separated bike lanes, safer footpaths and pedestrian crossings.
– Making electric vehicles more affordable and installing more charging stations, including up to $15,000 to replace on old petrol car with an electric vehicle and a grant scheme to connect homes to electric vehicles.
– Powering our public transport network and our cars with clean renewable energy and powering our homes with batteries on wheels (electric vehicles).
With more Greens in Parliament, we can push the next government to go further and faster on tackling the climate crisis.
5. We have seen no net increase in the amount of public housing for over 10 years. In 2022 there were 63,921 dwellings, a drop from 64,768 in 2012. In that time, the waiting list has ballooned to record levels of over 120,000 people.
Almost one in three Victorians are renters. But rents are going up three to four times faster than wages, and too many renters are paying more than 30% of their paycheck in rent – the definition of unaffordable housing.
This is due to our current and past governments historically providing special treatment for big property developers, with tax breaks and special deals, focusing on profit, rather than on people in need within our communities.
Our plan to tackle affordable housing includes:
– A big build of 200,000 new accessible and sustainable public and affordable homes over the next 20 years, creating 10,000 quality jobs.
– Making property developers allocate affordable homes to first time homeowners.
– Limiting rent increases in line with wage growth, to stop out of control rent rises
– Introducing a public and affordable housing levy, so developers have to contribute their fair share to affordable housing.
– Addressing the power imbalance between renters and estate agents with a Housing Ombudsman to help enforce renters’ rights.
In addition to the above, we have a plan to end homelessness by 2030 and initiatives to raise the standards of energy efficiency in our state.
6. Every family should have access to a high quality, genuinely free local public school.
However, we can see in the suburbs of Keysborough, Dingley Village and Waterways that when it comes to options for public secondary education, your only option would be the two
campuses of Keysborough Secondary College, both are kilometres away near the borders of Springvale and Noble Park, well away from Keysborough South and especially Dingley and Waterways.
The Greens will invest more in our local public schools so everyone can access a genuinely free public education, with quality teaching and with better support for disadvantaged students. We support initiatives to create new schools in population growth areas such as in Keysborough South, which has a clear lack of public secondary schools. Our candidate for Dandenong District, Matthew Kirwan, put forward motions in the City of Greater Dandenong as a Councillor in 2016 calling for the state government to do just that.
This lack of public secondary education in Keysborough is causing enormous financial stress for families as they have to make a choice to either go to a poorly funded and over capacity school in Keysborough or enrol in one of the nearby private schools. Disadvantaged families should not have to make these choices.
We also back increasing frequency of services for the 816 Bus Route as the main public transport link for both of the schools in Keysborough South, so that residents and students can reliably and easily go to and from the area without the need for a car.
We will push the next government to go further on reducing the costs of public education and making it easier to get to school with reliable and energy efficient public transport.
xxxxx
Sarah O’Donnell (independent)
Age: 41
Occupation: Swim School Owner and Instructor.
1. I live in Aspendale with my husband and 3 daughters. I have lived here for 22 years.
2. As I swim school owner, my business, like many other small businesses was heavily impacted by the lockdowns causing it to be closed.
I advocated for the swimming industry to be recognised as education so we could return to teaching the skill of swimming. No-one in the government listened.
I became frustrated with being told by members of parliament that they ”would look into it” and never did. It was clear to teachers in the swim industry that the consequences of the shutdowns would be an inevitable increase in drownings. Devastatingly, Victoria’s drowning statistics are now the highest they have ever been.
I am also extremely concerned with the corruption and lack of community consultation that currently exists. The role of the politician is to listen to, and represent the interests of their constituents. Instead we have central policy decisions being pushed down with no consultation.
Many people in the community share these concerns and this needs to change. These are our homes, we all deserve the opportunity to contribute to what takes place around us, it’s where we live.
3. I have been living, working and raising my family in the Mordialloc electorate for over 20 years. I love where I live and have strong ties with the community. I am not affiliated with any party or bound by party politics. I have broad based, real life skills as a business owner, a parent, a volunteer and an active member of my community.
I will not tolerate any level of corruption and will do my best to ensure that all residents in all suburbs are treated fairly.
4. Lack of community consultation. We have large and expensive infrastructure projects announced with no community consultation.
People’s homes, businesses and lives are being affected. Parkdale has had Skyrail thrown on them with zero community consultation. Aspendale and Mordialloc are heading down a similar path. I’m not opposed to development, I am opposed to reckless spending. Community comes first!
Rapidly expanding Keysborough is in desperate need of another secondary school.
All families should have access to high quality education. Distributions of funds to schools is also an issue we have seen in the Mordialloc Electorate.
Integrity, accountability and transparency.
IBAC needs to be strengthened to ensure that corruption is stamped out of parliament. Politicians whose offices take $14,000 of tax funded stamps for their political campaigns, in my view, are not fit to hold office and should be held to account.
5. By removing stamp duty for first home buyers and for downsizers.
Downsizers moving from larger homes to smaller homes free housing stock for redevelopment or for families who need the extra space. For people in retirement this also has the benefit of leaving them with money to help cope with the cost of living
Removal of stamp duty for first home buyers reduces the cost associated with purchasing a home and stimulates demand that encourages building of new property.
I will be investigating private rooming houses, unregulated pricing is driving rental costs up. I will encourage government and private business partnerships to develop more new build residence, we have seen very successful outcomes when community service providers team up with private business.
6. This is an absolute priority for the Mordialloc electorate. Access to education is incredibly important. Keysborough South is growing rapidly. I will work with the Keysborough residents to begin the process of building a new Secondary School.
xxxx
Patrick Lum (Family First Victoria)
Age: 62
Occupation: Retired Financial Controller
1. Waterways, VIC 3195 for 18 years
2. I’m concerned that our children are being taught radical politically correct ideas instead of the basics.
3. I will work hard to protect local families from the threat of radical political correctness.
4. Stopping the teaching of gender queer theory to children without parental consent.
Defend parents’ rights to choose how they want to raise their children without government telling them what to do. I will put forward a new legislation to support parental rights on their children.
I believes there are only two genders, male and female and I am committed to supporting those who are struggling with their gender identity. I will reverse the Government’s current legislation that forbid helping our children who are experiencing gender dysphoria. As parents, we don’t want to have male in female toilets, just because someone feel that he is a girl today. We also do not feel that male should compete in women’s sports as women cannot compete on equal terms due to their biological make up.
I will stop the indoctrination of our children by our schools and education institutions. I will ensure that our public schools should go back to the basic of education, that is, to help our children learn to read and write English, learn Maths and Science, and to teach real history, not creative history as to what it should has happened.
Support small business in my local areas. The longest lockdown in the world has decimated our local business. We need to provide incentive, not handouts to help local business to succeed.
Improved public transportation on weekends.
5. Getting the State Government to have more affordable housing at new suburbs at the Greater Dandenong area where they are located close to industrial areas and business centres. This means low-income earners who are living in these affordable homes can have easy access to employment.
6. We support having a new high school in Keysborough South so that local family living in that area does not have to travel far to send their children to school. Less travel times means less stress on families and hopefully will translate more quality family times at home.
xxxx
Tim Richardson (Australian Labor Party)
Age: 34
Occupation: Member of Parliament – Mordialloc Electorate
1. Chelsea & Chelsea Heights for the previous 9 years with my wife Lauren and our girls, Paisley and Orla.
2. When I first put my hand up to serve you in our local community, my mission was to leave our community in a better place than I found it – and that’s the value I’ve lived by to support our community every day since 2014. For part of my life I was raised by a single mum who instilled in me the importance of working hard and getting a good education. I was fortunate to access a great public education in our south east and be the first in my family to go on to university. Having seen and experienced how transformational an excellent public education system can be, it inspired me to step up in our community and work hard to give all kids the very best opportunities, regardless of their postcode. Now as the Parliamentary Secretary for Schools, Mental Health and Social Inclusion, I work hard every day to change and improve our community for the better. I am now also a father to two little girls, and it’s because them I am passionate about making our community the best place to raise a family – somewhere we can access the best education, enjoy beautiful parklands and open spaces and have the very best public services.
3. Having served our community for the past eight years as the Member for Mordialloc, I have a proven track record of working hard each and every day to make our community a better place to live. Together with the community, we’re achieved so much – whether it’s upgrading our schools and kinders, delivering road and rail projects like Level Crossing removals on the Dandenong and Frankston lines, Free TAFE and Free Kinder, and creating thousands of great new local jobs. But there’s always more to do – I’ll keep working with our wonderful residents and community to make Greater Dandenong and Keysborough South even better for the future.
4. Cost of Living: We know families are working hard to make ends meet, and we need to support our local families with the cost of living. That is why Labor is providing Free Kinder for 3 and 4 year olds from next year, which will save families up to $2,500 per year, per child. We’re delivering the Power Saving Bonus, giving every household $250 and making sure they’re getting the best deal on their energy bills – with more than 7 out of 10 households save up to $330 on average, supporting local families.
Supporting our nurses and paramedics: The Andrews Labor Government has already boosted our healthcare workforce by more than 26,000 nurses, paramedics and healthcare workers – and we’ll do more. We’re making studying nursing and midwifery free to help train the next generation – and for nursing and midwifery graduates who commit to working in our public system, we’ll provide a $5,000 sign-on bonus to support them A re-elected Labor Government will invest more than $500 million to upgrade Monash Medical Centre, delivering a new operating theatre complex, intensive care unit and birthing suites – providing capacity for an extra 7,500 surgeries a year. Labor will also deliver $295 million for Dandenong Hospital, with upgrades to the emergency department as well as a new intensive care unit, operating theatres and a new outpatient clinic for specialist appointments.
Taking action on climate change: Labor has a plan to keep the lights on – and bills down. We’re bringing back the SEC to put energy back into Victorians’ hands while we transition Victoria to cleaner, cheaper renewable electricity by 2035 – creating thousands of jobs. We’ll step up to 95% renewable electricity by 2035 and reach net zero emissions by 2045. Labor will ensure we have enough renewable energy to keep the lights on and drive household bills down.
5. Having a safe place to live that feels like home is a right – and only Labor has a plan to support Victorians into dignified local housing. We’re delivering the historic $5.3 billion Big Housing Build to construct more than 12,000 new homes throughout Victoria, as well as supporting around 10,000 jobs, per year over the next four years. We are also delivering the Victorian Homebuyer Fund –with $1.1 billion to triple the size of available support and help thousands more Victorians realise their dream of owning a home. So far, the Fund has helped more than 2,000 Victorians buy a home – with another 1,000 applicants approved to start house-hunting knowing they have a secure funding partner.
6. We have wonderful schools in our local community – the Labor Government has made record investments in schools in Greater Dandenong, including delivering the new Keysborough Gardens Primary School, which is an incredible school community in Keysborough South. Since coming go Government, we’ve invested more than $12.8 billion in building new schools and more than 1,850 school upgrades – and we are now well ahead of schedule on our work to open 100 new schools by 2026.We will continue to monitor school enrolments and population projections and working with local authorities to ensure every Victorian student has access to a high-quality education – but I want to assure the community there is plenty of capacity at Keysborough Secondary College (Acacia Campus) to support every child in our community into a great local high school.
xxxx
No response: ALBRECHT, Deborah (Freedom Party of Victoria), VO, Chi (Animal Justice Party), REID, Phil.
