Voters in Lalor, the federal electorate covering all of Wyndham and sections of Hobsons Bay, will have options from all three major parties when they go to the polls on July 2.
Incumbent MP, Labor’s Joanne Ryan has held the seat since the 2013 election when she took over from former prime minister Julia Gillard.
Ms Ryan, a Werribee local who’s a former school teacher and principal, suffered a 10 per cent swing against her in the last election.
The Liberals and Greens would need a swing of 12.16 per cent to win the seat.
Created in 1949, the Lalor electorate has only ever been held once by a non-Labor MP. That was from 1966-69 when the representative was Liberals’ Mervyn Lee.
Running against Ms Ryan this year are the Liberals’ Gayle Murphy and Greens’ Daniel Sova.
Neither candidate accepted Star Weekly’s request for an interview.
Ms Murphy’s campaign website describes her as a small business owner who has lived in the Wyndham area for 15 years.
Listing the electorate’s mix of agriculture, new housing and business development as its strengths, Ms Murphy says she believes they can be built upon to create opportunity.
The website says the Liberal candidate believes the community has been taken for granted by Labor and pledges she will be the “strong voice and real action local families deserve”.
Mr Sova’s campaign website says the candidate grew up in the west, where he’s raising a young family with his partner.
He’s a company director who co-founded several companies in the telecommunications and IT industries.
The website says he sees challenges caused by lack of infrastructure and service provision, while housing affordability, infrastructure funding, public transport and job creation are issues he’s passionate about.
