By Callum Ludwig
Voices For Casey have officially declared their candidate for the 2025 Federal election.
Claire Ferres Miles is back to run again, having contested in 2022 after stepping down from her role as chief executive of Sustainability Victoria to do so.
Ms Ferres Miles said she is super excited and very humbled to be nominated again.
“I’m really looking forward to getting out and about and talking to as many people as possible and having thousands of conversations,” she said.
“I think people are really engaged and they are looking for a better representative from Casey that is answerable to their community and that will actually advocate strongly and take action on the issues that we feel care about.”
The launch event held at the Upwey Recreation Reserve on Sunday 6 October had about 150 supporters of the movement in attendance.
Ms Ferres Miles said in the last two years we’ve seen that the independent MPs on the crossbench are the future of Australian politics.
“They’re very positive, they turn up to vote, they get engaged in wanting to make the government better and they’ve made amazing changes in terms of the National Integrity Commission, more ambitious action on climate change and reducing HECS debt,” she said.
“I think the independents are a great role model about what’s possible and over the last two years with Voices of Casey, they’ve done a phenomenal listening survey with a thousand people which is the policy platform for my campaign about the priority issues that the people of Casey want action on,”
“When you’re trying to change the two-party system, the essence of an independent campaign is volunteers and people, so the big challenge for us but also the big opportunity is to have hundreds of volunteers having thousands of conversations.”
Phil Ruck formerly of 3MDR’s Mountain District Radio MC’d the event, while other guest speakers included Voices for Casey President Dr Ani Wierenga, Vice President Nicole Gale, Vice President of the Upwey Community Group Trevor Stanley and Ms Ferres Miles’ eldest daughter Emily.
Ms Ferres Miles said she learnt a lot from her first campaign in 2022.
“I think the data shows that most, irrespective of if they are independents, but most federal MPs, it takes three times to get elected, so yes, I ran in 2022 but also, I think the time is now,” she said.
“The more and more I talk to people in the community, the more I hear the two-party system is just not serving us and people are looking for a strong alternative, and I am that alternative,”
“I look forward to being out and about in the community and raising the visibility that I’m running, and I’m really keen to talk to community leaders and community groups to better understand their issues and what’s important to them and what success is for them from their federal employees.”
Prior to embarking on her political campaigns, Ms Ferres Miles has been an advocate for community issues such as saving the Sherbrooke Family & Children’s Centre and the ‘No Maccas in Tecoma’ protest, as well as helping set up the Upwey Toy Library and getting involved in the school council of her children’s schools.
Ms Ferres Miles lives in Upwey with her husband Colin, has five children, and was a landscape architect and traffic engineer prior to her previous role with Sustainability Victoria. Since the 2022 election, she has co-founded an urban strategy consultancy firm, Curiosity Co.
