By Parker McKenzie
Several township groups based in the Casey electorate have organised a meet the candidates forum, with a focus on young, new and undecided voters.
Taking place on Monday 9 May from 7.30pm to 9pm, registration for the forum opened to young people on Tuesday 26 April and will open to the rest of the public on 1 May.
The forum will feature five candidates: Labor’s Bill Brindle, Liberal Aaron Violi, Jenny Game from the Greens, the UAP’s Anthony Bellve and independent Claire Ferres Miles.
Montrose Township Group’s Chelsey Cooper said the forum has been organised by the Kilsyth Community Action Group, Montrose Township Group, Mt Evelyn Township Group and Mooroolbark Umbrella Group.
“We wanted to have an opportunity for people who live in suburban and urban areas to have an opportunity to get to know the candidates, if they haven’t already,” she said.
“We are targeting specifically youth organizations and organizations that work with young people. It’s an early bird registration process until the first of May, so that young people have a chance to have a seat. Hopefully, there’ll be a significant representation of young people at that forum.”
The forum will be moderated by Pat Boucher from Yarra Ranges Life TV and Casey residents can submit answers when booking online.
Ms Cooper said every candidate for Casey was invited to participate, with the five appearing at the forum answering the call.
“From my perspective, I’d love to hear why they’ve chosen the party they’ve chosen to be part of or why have they chosen to be independent,” she said.
“The conversations that I’ve had with people who’ve been stopped voters of that specific party for years and years, all have different reasons as to why they chose that party. It made me realize that candidates choose to be aligned with the party or choose to be independent, for different reasons as well.”
During the forum, attending people will have the opportunity to form smaller groups to meet and interact with the candidates.
“We wanted to make sure that there was time specifically devoted to one on one time, so the candidate gets to speak individually with groups of people as well.” Ms Cooper said.
Places for the online forum can be reserved at meetcaseycandidates.eventbrite.com.au
