By Tanya Steele
Ahead of the upcoming election, Tecoma Uniting Church is hosting a Meet the Candidates event on Saturday 5 April from 3pm to 4.30pm.
Voters in the Casey electorate are invited to a unique opportunity to engage directly with the candidates in line for their vote at a Q&A-style event.
All four candidates will be present – Labor candidate Naomi Oakley, current Member for Casey Liberal Aaron Violi, Greens candidate Merran Blair and Independent candidate Claire Ferres Miles.
The afternoon session will provide a platform for local residents to get to know the individuals who could be representing them.
Event organiser Minister Matt said that while some people say faith and politics don’t fix, for the Tecoma Uniting Church, they believe they are inseparable.
“If politics is how we organise ourselves, than as a church we want to be encouraging conversation and participation by our local community around that,” he said.
Fellow organiser and Casey resident Shakti said the church has hosted panel events before and it’s something they want to offer the community.
“It’s a place to hear what candidates are offering and learn a little bit about them in a facilitated and safe space,” she said.
The planned interactive session will allow attendees to ask questions and gain insight into the candidates’ positions on key issues.
The Q&A will feature a mix of pre-submitted questions from the community, alongside live questions from those in attendance.
It’s a chance to hear directly from the candidates, what they stand for and how they plan to advocate for the Casey electorate.
The church will host the event and Steve Barrington from Foothills Community Care will be acting as the facilitator on the day.
“It will give the people attending an opportunity to hear what the candidates platforms are, they get allocated time with a bell,” said Shatki.
“We are also collecting questions on the Facebook event page, we already have quite a few,” she said.
So far the Facebook event page has had comments surrounding majority votes, climate, penalty rate, insurance affordability and more.
Minister Matt said that for them as a church, encouraging their local community at this time to be engaged in the political process is vital.
“We need to understand our candidates and allow them to understand us – particularly because my belief, is that they work for us,” he said.
“As our representatives they need to hear what’s important to us – this forum is a great chance to do that.”
“There won’t be any democracy sausages, but it is sure to be saucy”
The Tecoma Uniting Church are also planning for a zoom link on the event page and if people would like to add questions they can do that by emailing the church, or by adding questions to the discussion feed on the Facebook event page.
“We are serving our community in the hills,” said Shatki.
The session is on Saturday 5 April, from 3pm to 4,30pm at Tecoma Uniting Church -1566 Burwood Hwy , Tecoma.
