Alliance:people before politics

By Kath Gannaway
MEMBERS of the Healesville branch of the Country Alliance Party have had an opportunity to put their views to recently appointed Northern Region candidates Danny Lee and Fred Goodwin.
Mr Lee, a farmer from Mildura, and Mr Goodwin, a technologist from Strathdale near Bendigo, visited the branch with a message that they will be putting the interests of their constituents before those of party politics.
With the change to proportional representation in the Legislative Council in the Upper House, Mr Lee is predicting a minor party will hold the balance of power after the November election.
“We are arguing that the balance of power would be best in our hands, particularly for regional and rural areas,” he said.
“We are not bound by party politics. Each Country Alliance candidate represents the interests of their region’s constituents,” Mr Goodwin said.
Mr Lee and Mr Goodwin said they would be focusing on issues that affect ‘mums and dads’, would support good policies from either side and speak out against policies they believed were not good for regional Victoria.
They said their priorities were water management, infrastructure, decentralisation of government services relevant to regional Victoria, public transport, education, health, employment, sensible and sustainable development, recreation facilities and activities and the environment.
Mr Goodwin said the timber industry had to be run on sensible, sustainable grounds. “Sometimes government departments are not the people best suited to managing that,” he said.
Among other platforms, they said they are against any further tightening of regulations on gun laws, would push for more liberal firewood collection and for the opening up of the bush for recreation and the High Country for cattle.
Healesville, with a membership of between 30 and 40 members, is a bit of an anomaly in the ‘Alliance’ network, with all other branches established in major regional centres – Bendigo, Geelong, Horsham and Mildura.
Healesville Country Alliance member Brian Garth said he saw the party supporting people who want to get out and use the bush.
“There are so many people who live in this area who love enjoying the bush. The major parties and the Greens are all about. I am supporting someone who supports multi-use management.”
Another member, Chris Peake, said he believed the party would provide relevant representation. “It (Northern Region) is a large area but our local members are useless anyway,” he said. “It’s better to have someone regionally based who you can communicate with.”