Turning the Werribee, Tarneit and Altona districts into marginal seats will not secure Wyndham more state government funding, according to Monash University political expert Nick Economou.
The three state lower house seats covering Wyndham have been held by Labor since 1979 and are considered to be “safe seats”. This has prompted calls from many in the community for people to use their vote on November 29 to change the status of the seats to marginal.
Wyndham council is also urging residents to cast their votes wisely by choosing the political party that will best serve local interests.
Councillors last month said they were fed up with the steady stream of pledges being made by both the Labor and Liberal parties in marginal areas, while Wyndham’s needs were ignored.
But Dr Economou said marginal electorates didn’t necessarily get more funding than other districts.
“I think it’s the sort of rhetoric that comes around at every election. You do get instances where politicians go to marginal electorates and make a commitment on issues or a particular project, but it generally doesn’t involve large amounts of money. This gives people the impression those seats are considered to be more important,” he said.
“Just because an area is considered to be marginal doesn’t necessarily mean it will be treated any differently by a particular government. The way Victoria’s electoral system works is that we have about a
third of the seats which are safe Labor, a third safe Liberal or Nationals, and a third which are marginal.”
Cr Glenn Goodfellow said the major parties had both failed to deliver many of the transport and infrastructure projects needed in Wyndham, leaving residents frustrated by announcements in marginal areas.
He said the city had a backlog of arterial road duplications and upgrades totalling about $1 billion and the most indirect and infrequent bus routes in Melbourne because both parties had “cherry-picked” projects that would receive state funding.
“I would urge residents to make their vote count because there is only so much a community can take until it reaches breaking point. We see money going elsewhere yet we have major issues,” Cr Goodfellow said.
“An integrated program is needed to address train services, the impact of level crossings, bus services and arterial roads in the outer suburbs, not just the headline- grabbing projects.”
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