By Parker McKenzie
Mums of the Hills will be hosting an online meet the Casey candidates event on Thursday 5 May from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.
The free event will feature five candidates: Liberal Aaron Violi, Labor’s Bill Brindle, Greens candidate Jenny Game, Anthony Bellve from the UAP and independent Claire Ferres Miles.
Mums of the Hills founder Belinda Young said an online event made the most sense for the group.
“The majority of our 4,400 members are in the Casey electorate,” she said.
“I thought that it was incredibly important for our members to have a good understanding of what the key candidates in our electorate have got to say.”
The forum will take the form of a question and answer session followed by a debate. Each candidate will be given the opportunity to introduce themselves and discuss their aims if they are elected as the new federal member for Casey.
Ms Young said the event would not only allow the community to scrutinise the candidates but also help create and foster a relationship with whoever becomes their representative.
“We are a bipartisan, non-political group, but we do advocate for the community,” she said.
“Whoever wins the election, we still need to work with that person. Setting up that relationship beforehand is really important to us.”
Mums of the Hills was created to support local mums living throughout the Dandenong Ranges, who may struggle with access to jobs, childcare, health care and transportation.
Ms Young said while she can’t talk for every member of the group, there were several important issues likely to raised during the event.
“I know that there are a lot of people concerned about childcare. They’re concerned about the cost of living, they’re concerned about climate-resilient infrastructure in the mountains, particularly communications, telecommunications, and power,” she said.
“An ICAC is very big and so is the NDIS. We seem to have quite a lot of families that rely on the NDIS up here, so they are particularly important issues. I suppose the one thing that really covers all of them as well is climate change.”
Anyone interested in registering for the free event can find more information at www.mumsofthehills.com.au/events/meet-the-casey-candidates
