The swing seat

By Kath Gannaway
“IF LABOR can’t win McEwen, it can’t win the election.”
The gauntlet was thrown down by Nick Economou, Senior Lecturer in politics at Monash University, as McEwen candidates for the three major parties joined ABC radio commentator Jon Faine for a pre-election broadcast from Healesville Hotel on Thursday.
There was standing room only in the hotel dining room as Faine brought together for the first time in the campaign ALP candidate Rob Mitchell, The Greens’ Steve Meacher and Liberal candidate Cameron Caine.
Mr Economou said it was the metropolitan spillover into McEwen which would determine the final result
With McEwen having the highest concentration in the country of children in the 0-5 age group, and rating as the seventh-highest electorate in terms of home ownership, he said education, childcare, parental leave and the economy would be important in the populous areas of the electorate.
“Interest rates, infrastructure and the population debate will come into it,” he said.
In Healesville however, the focus from the floor – heavily weighted to The Greens – was on bushfire issues and the environment, with broadband also getting a hearing.
Cameron Caine said people looked to the federal member when other levels of government failed them.
He said more needed to be done for the people who were struggling mentally, physically and emotionally after the bushfires.
“Yes, there are things happening, but instead of building homes they are building community centres; you have to have houses, petrol stations and businesses.”
Mr Mitchell conceded bushfires issues were prominent but said he believed the economy, health and education would be the key this time in the Yarra Valley and across the electorate.
“I think people are wise enough that they can separate local, state and federal issues,” he said.
Steve Meacher said Federal Government had a role to play in bushfires.
“There are several recommendations that call on action from the Federal Government, not the least is the link between bushfires and climate change,” he said.
“We need more action from the Federal Government on the factors that led to the conditions experienced on Black Saturday.”
A show of hands showed all but four people connected up to the internet but just five or six satisfied with the service.
Mr Mitchell said Healesville would be on the National Broadband Network proposed by Labor.
“Talking to doctors, to business, to people at home, they all want faster broadband,” he said.
Cameron Caine said he believed there would be problems delivering the NBN because of the topography in McEwen and of the potential blow-out of the cost of delivering the service.
The cost should also be measured in wasted opportunity, Mr Meacher said.
“Internet is the way business is done. What will it cost McEwen if we don’t have the technology to connect our community to the rest of the world?”
A show of hands indicated that the views, and the votes, people came with were the ones they left with.
In an overview Mr Economou said he was surprised there was no mention of refugees and asylum seekers, the mining tax or the Building the Education Revolution overruns.
“What struck me is the dominance of bushfire issues. When you look at a map of McEwen you think this is rural, but it is increasingly becoming an outer suburban electorate and I wonder if you did this exercise in another part of the electorate, whether you would get to those broader issues,” he said.