By Charlene Macaulay
Wyndham voters will head to the polls this Saturday following weeks of campaigning and election promises from candidates vying for one of the city’s three lower house seats.
Thousands of voters have already lodged their votes by post and at early polling centres, which opened last Monday, November 12.
By Saturday night, 7431 Werribee voters took to early polling booths and selected from the eight candidates contesting the seat, currently held by Labor MP Tim Pallas. According to Sportsbet, Mr Pallas has $1.05 to $1 odds of holding on to his seat, with independent candidate, long-time Werribee GP Joe Garra, the next favourite at $7.
In the seat of Tarneit, which has been left vacant by Labor’s Telmo Languiller, 6387 voters lodged early votes. In Altona, where Labor incumbent Jill Hennessy is seeking re-election, 7613 voters had visited pre-polling centres by Saturday night.
In the past week, Labor has promised to build a new early parenting centre in Wyndham that would support 690 families a year and give new parents the advice they need, including support with sleeping, feeding and extra care for babies with additional needs.
Wyndham council’s Schools 4 Wyndham campaign has taken Labor to task for promising seven new schools in Wyndham by 2022 when six of the schools listed had already been planned and partly funded.
In an email sent out at the weekend, the campaign expressed its concern that the Coalition had made no commitment to build new government schools.
Similarly, Dr Garra questioned why Labor had committed $100 million for a maternity hospital in Geelong when Wyndham, which officially outstripped Geelong’s population earlier this year, was overlooked despite its rising maternity and paediatric needs.
“[Geelong is] getting a new maternity hospital, while Werribee has a limit and some women have to get to Sunshine to have their babies,” Dr Garra wrote on his Facebook page.
