By Kath Gannaway
ANTI-PIPELINE campaigner Jan Beer will stand as an independent candidate for the seat of Seymour in the November state election.
Ms Beer, a Yea farmer and small-business owner, announced on the weekend that she would challenge Labor incumbent Ben Hardman for the seat on a platform of more accountable and transparent government.
“Honesty and integrity has been sadly missing whilst Premier Burmby has been in office,” she said on Sunday.
“I refuse to stand by and watch the erosion of our democratic rights where the basic right to peacefully protest results in people being arrested and where individuals are spied upon by their own government.” Ms Beer is currently taking legal action against Melbourne Water in relation to what she claims are infringements of her right to privacy over the two-year period of the north-south pipeline construction.
The case went before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on 4 October and has been listed for a further hearing in February next year.
Hitting out at what she said was “spin and vindictive action” by the government, she listed examples of projects she claims were fast-tracked and mishandled in recent years.
Ms Beer said she was standing as an independent so “I do not have to toe the party political line”.
She said she believed that as an independent she will be able to advocate for and represent rural Victorians without fear or favour.
In response to Ms Beer’s allegations of that Melbourne Water spied on her and infringed her right to privacy, a statement issued by Melbourne Water stated that as the matter was before VCAT “it would be imprudent to comment on the matter specifically”.
The statement, however, rejected claims there were privacy breaches as part of the safety and security arrangements on the Sugarloaf (North-South) Pipeline project stating there were “well-publicised threats, protests and breaches of the peace” during the construction period and that organised hostility towards the project often posed an unacceptable risk”.
