The first nominee putting their name forward to represent some Yarra Ranges townships after the 2026 Victorian election has been confirmed, with the Greens having preselected their lead candidate for the Northern Victoria region in the upper house.
Northern Victoria includes Yarra Ranges townships in the Upper Yarra from Woori Yallock east along the Warburton Highway, as well as the Yarra Valley towns of Yarra Glen, Healesville, Chum Creek, Badger Creek, Toolangi, Steels Creek and Dixons Creek.
Dr Cate Sinclair has been named as the lead of the Greens ticket and said she lives in the bush near Castlemaine.
“I’m an occupational therapist, I work with young people who have chronic pain and I’m also a researcher, the research that I’ve done that’s been done across the world now is showing that young people who have chronic pain that impacts their capacity to function and do things are directly impacted by the environments that they’re living in,” she said.
“When we see families who are having so much difficulty with housing security, cost of living and just paying for everyday groceries, that kind of pressure is actually experienced by the kids and so for me to keep doing the work I was doing just began to feel futile and I needed to look at the bigger picture.
“When we look at the environment and what’s happening with climate change, it’s climate upheaval that we’re all living in, it was enough for me to put my hand up and stand for the Greens.”
Dr Sinclair previously stood for the Greens in the 2022 Federal election in the seat of Bendigo and again ran for Northern Victoria in the Legislative Council for Northern Victoria that same year.
Dr Sinclair said the key message she’s gathered from her previous electoral efforts is that there’s a growing number of people who are very concerned about climate change and its impacts.
“Even in the last three years, the floods that we’ve had up north and now the drought that we’ve had that’s happened really quickly, and the way that people’s everyday lives are also impacted by the reduced funding for services has meant that the message is that people are still very concerned,” she said.
“There’s a sense that Labor is not doing enough and we need to have Greens in the upper house to actually influence and change some of those outcomes.
“Our plan is to have an increase in our vote so that we’re getting above 10 per cent, ideally, we want 16 per cent to get a clear quota and to be able to be voted directly in without needing preferences, and that’s why the Greens are actively lobbying for the group voting system to be removed so that there’s actually a fair playing field.”
In July 2024, the Electoral Matters Committee recommended Victoria eliminate group voting tickets as the method of electing its Upper House, which other states have already done in recent years. The group ticket system means Legislative Council candidates must win a quota of the statewide vote, which can be achieved by winning votes directly or by sourcing votes from other candidates or parties in order to achieve enough of the vote to win, rather than being based on the voters preferences.
The Greens were unsuccessful in having a candidate elected in Northern Victoria in 2022, with Dr Sinclair receiving 6.66 per cent of the first preference vote (30,966 votes). The Nationals candidate Gaelle Broad was elected with 0.26 per cent of the first preference vote (1210 votes), Animal Justice Party’s Georgie Purcell with 1.53 per cent (7123 votes) and Pauline Hanson’s Ona Nation’s Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell with 3.68 per cent (17,091 votes) ahead of her.
Dr Sinclair said we also need to be focusing on health issues and looking at the access that people have to have, particularly around the Yarra Ranges and Healesville.
“There’s a lack of access to urgent care and to medical services and that’s impacting everybody’s day-to-day life, the cost of medical care is enormous and there’s not adequate mental health services,” she said.
“The other thing is housing and housing insecurity, the cost of renting continues to go up despite there not being housing availability or affordability… particularly in areas like the Yarra Ranges and around Healesville where there’s high levels of tourism, that creates a lot of difficulty for local populations and being able to find housing for hospitality workers and health workers, teachers, everybody in our community is feeling that pressure.
“Those are things that we need action on now and also recognising that we’ve got increased bushfire risk that has a huge impact on the local bush, farmlands and local towns, the risk of catastrophic fire days is increasing and we need to be prepared for that and it’s not really being adequately managed either.”
Anyone interested in contacting, donating or volunteering for Dr Sinclair’s campaign can do so at greens.org.au/vic/person/cate-sinclair.
Dr Sinclair said she will be down in Healesville, Warburton and the Yarra Ranges during her campaign to come and speak to people about what matters.
“That’s the part of campaigning that I think is really important,” she said.
“My plan is to head across to Healesville, I have an EV (electric vehicle) so I’m going to be driving across and lobbying for more EV charging station.
“The plan is to get around to the entire region, I’ve got 12 months to do that in, which is very exciting that we’ve got enough time to be able to plan to get across the whole region.”
