I will stand up to the big corporations and advocate for the hard-working people of Casey.

Casey families are digging deep just to keep their heads above water. When I go to the supermarket to buy a few groceries - the essentials, bread, fruit, vegies, milk, Weetbix, eggs - before I blink the cost is $100 and it lasts for only a few days. People are relying on foodbanks and amazing local organisations like the Montrose Community Cupboard to keep food on the table.

The major parties are not acting to ease these pressures because they receive donations from the same corporations reporting exorbitant profits. The cost-of-living crisis is being caused by greedy corporations gouging customers. The major parties watch on, deep in the pockets of the big banks, supermarkets, and multinational gas companies.

Insurance premiums are a major pain point, contributing to cost-of-living pressures. 

I will advocate for Casey to be front and centre in the housing conversation - with community engagement to identify locations to achieve more diverse housing - units, townhouses, apartments which are close to the services, public transport and facilities people need.

The people of Casey love living where we live and they want to stay here throughout all the different stages of life from being a kid, becoming a young person, studying, falling in love, finding a home to live in, working hard, raising a family, having fun, community volunteering, retiring, being a grey nomad and then getting the care when you need it most to live and die well.

Casey does not have the quantity and diversity of housing choices for every stage of life. My 23-year-old daughter can't afford to buy a house with the options very limited, either a knock-down fixer upper, a former drug den, a unit with damp, or it's too expensive. I've also heard from people that options to downsize are few and far between when you no longer have time, money and energy to look after a large garden or acreage, or the kids have flown the nest, and the house is just too big and too much cleaning.

We also have lots of people in Casey that are homeless, who do not have secure and safe housing to return to each night. People are living in tents in the back of the block, in a caravan parked in a friend's paddock, couch-surfing, sleeping in cars, under rail bridges, on park benches. 

Casey residents deserve proper healthcare including the return of emergency care to the Valley. We need to raise our voice on this critical issue.

It is a failure of both major parties that the Casey electorate of 2,624 square kilometres has no emergency care. Healesville Hospital does not have an emergency department on-site and the Warburton Hospital closed its doors on 14 March 2001. Both Maroondah and Angliss Hospitals are outside the electorate. For people that live in the Valley and Upper Yarra when you call 000 for an ambulance, they recommend you get in your own car to drive to Maroondah Hospital as it will be faster than waiting for an ambulance. This is unacceptable. No one should have to wait or travel far in an emergency.

I have heard from Casey residents that people are struggling to manage cost-of-living pressures, compromising their personal health care - delaying essential medical appointments, rationing medications, and postponing dental care. Local healthcare workers have noticed an increasing trend of patients struggling to maintain prescribed treatments, raising serious concerns about long-term health outcomes. A parent described their anguish with medical costs, as they tried to manage a chronic condition for their child - a stark reminder of how our current system often fails those who need it most.

The people of Casey have suggested a range of healthcare solutions - strengthened and expanded Medicare to include dental care, increased support for bulk-billing practices, and increased engagement with local GPs with a focus on local coordinated patient-led care. Health security is fundamental to economic security.

I will work with all 3 levels of Government to better understand the asset management strategy for Casey's roads and public transport services - so we can have better outcomes in the future, working with the Shire of Yarra Ranges, the Victorian Government's Department of Transport and Planning and the Federal Government's Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. 

Who hasn't had a flat tire from hitting a pothole (or should I say black hole) in recent years in Casey? I have, 3 x $250 each to repair car tyres - on the upside I've had practice changing a tyre! The state of our roads is appalling, a patchwork of underfunding and the impacts of climate change. With increasing frequency of heavy rains, floods and storms the task of maintenance is more expensive as required more often. As a traffic engineer, I know the engineering required to design and construct a high-quality road. The same pothole being patched again and again is not the solution when the sub-base is being washed away.

In the Voices for Casey 2024 Listening Report you told me Roads Infrastructure and Maintenance is a top priority, highlighting the poor condition of our suburban, regional and rural roads across Casey, the need for safer pedestrian crossings, and the importance of improving public transport services.

Unsafe roads, dangerous (or no) pedestrian crossings and infrequent unreliable bus services directly impact the quality of life for residents, particular those living in the more rural parts of Casey.

I support any solution that makes our power bills cheaper, makes energy companies pay their fair share and achieves a resilient power supply:

• clamping down on price-gouging energy companies
• bringing online cheaper power 
• increasing rebates for solar and batteries to reduce household and business reliance on expensive power from the grid
• being an active voice supporting our community leaders to achieve community resilient energy networks that keep the lights and the phone on
• discussing a sensible and pragmatic transition away from gas to electric when we know our electricity supply is secure.

We are getting fleeced by energy companies, charging more and more for electricity and gas, reporting exorbitant profits and paying next to no tax.

Our energy network in Casey is unstable, it is normal for the power to go out most weeks, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. All electric is a fantastic idea to reduce gas usage, but removing gas from households and community facilities in Casey is not practical when the energy network is so unstable. With no power, gas heating and gas cooking is our back-up. Not everyone can afford to buy their own back-up generator. We need a community-wide conversation about our ideas to advocate and invest in community-led community power, including micro-grids, neighbourhood batteries and back-up NBN/satellite phones. Community energy resilience is about doing the work early, planning ahead and having the conversations before an emergency, so the community knows what to do when the power and phones go out.

I will work hard to advocate for sensible solutions that are good for us, good for the economy and good for the environment.

Today the people of Casey are living with the impacts of climate change. We've been hit hard by more intense and more frequent storms, floods and bushfires, putting our homes and lives at risk and sending our insurance premiums through the roof.

Instead of taking action to protect us, the previous Liberal government wasted a decade playing politics on climate change, and now the current Labor government has continued approving large-scale coal and gas projects with permits to operate beyond 2050.

I've advocated for practical solutions to complex problems, including on climate, where I have supported community groups to invest locally in solar panels and EV charging stations, led an innovative residential energy home upgrade program for people with chronic illnesses, invested $100million in waste management infrastructure to improve recycling and supported mobilisation of Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme.

Climate Change is an economic policy, the skills and jobs for our kids and grandkids to work in. We need to accelerate solutions that deliver jobs and prosperity for Casey.

I will be an active voice supporting our emergency services and community leaders:

• Listening to understand what support our emergency services need to protect our community
• Advocating to improve mobile phone coverage across Casey to eliminate 'blackspots' - wouldn't it be great to drive between Grants picnic ground, Kallista and Monbulk and the mobile keeps working!
• Meeting with Telstra, Optus, TPG and Vodaphone to discuss a better way to maintain power to the mobile telecommunication towers, ensuring access to Triple Zero is always working
• Working together to achieve community resilient energy networks that keep the lights and the phone on.

Restoring trust in our federal government is a top priority for me:

• Electoral reforms that set an equal planning field, with the same rules for all candidates (this is not the case with the Government's Electoral Reform Bill)
• Transparency, real-time reporting and caps on political donations
• Truth in political advertising.

The people of Casey have told me they want greater integrity in politics. We want politicians to act in the best interests of our community not a party.

I have role modelled the highest standards of behaviour in my professional life as an engineer, public servant and small business owner.

In 2022 I advocated for a National Anti-Corruption Commission to be set-up, with its important work starting on 1 July 2023. But I feel let down and disappointed by the Commission's decision to not proceed with the recommendations from the Robodebt Royal Commission. People died because of an illegal government policy and there must be accountability by those that made the decisions.

In November 2024 the Government introduced an Electoral Reform Bill, a deal done in the dark. Self-interest of the major parties is the winner, not the Australian public. The bill guarantees big money to the big parties, in fact $90 million for each party. Read Kate Chaney's op-ed here, Berard Keane's article in Crikey here - Labor's Don Farrell has put together a tempting offer for the Coalition, use campaign finance laws to kill off the teals and Juice Media's Honest Government Ad - How to rig elections (language warning) - Labor and Liberal may not agree on much but when it comes to stopping newcomers from competing with them you can be sure they'll pass it in weeks.

I will be the voice of tradies and subbies to get paid. I will vote in support of a legislative requirement that construction companies set aside money, so subcontractors receive prompt payment of progress claims.

When construction companies collapse building subcontractors do not get paid for work completed. This is not fair. As a small business owner I know the pain and stress of making sure the cash flow stays positive, and it hurts when invoices are not paid.

In the suburban areas of Casey - Mooroolbark, Lilydale, Chirnside Park, Kilsyth and Mount Evelyn, census data tells us that between Canterbury Road and Maroondah Highway tradies outnumber professionals 2:1, 80% of households are families and 47% have mortgages.

The Government made a promise in 2022 to respond in THIS TERM of Parliament to the Murray Review on Security of Payments so tradies have a better chance of being paid for work done. This promise was negotiated by Independent Senator David Pocock as part of the 2022 Industrial Relations Bill. The 2017 Murray Review recommended a legislated requirement that construction companies set aside money for all subbies so they receive prompt payment of progress claims. In a cost-of-living crisis legislation to protect tradies to get paid for the work they've done is a priority.

I support a lasting ceasefire in the Middle East, for immediate and lasting humanitarian aid to be delivered to those they need it, and for those who have violated international law to be held to account. The physical rebuilding of Gaza will take decades and the emotional rebuilding of the Palestinian peoples will take generations.

I condemn the loss of life of innocent people by Hamas in Israel on 7 October 2023.

The actions of the Government of Israel since this date have not been proportionate. Critique of the actions taken by governments is not a critique of ethnicity nor religion.

Over the past 18 months we have witnessed an 'unprecedented level of killing and injury, which in many instances amounts to war crimes, may constitute crimes against humanity or may constitute genocide, with a failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.' UN Human Rights Office. Tens of thousands of families, parents, siblings and friends living both in the region and across the world mourn the loss of people they have loved with 70% of verified fatalities in Gaza women and children.

Gaza is destroyed from indiscriminate and sustained bombing by the Government of Israel of hospitals, roads, water and power. Recent comments suggesting the relocation of the Palestinian peoples is the very definition of ethnic cleansing.

People of different faiths and cultures have been traumatised and their safety threatened - this is not OK. As a community we must listen with empathy and discuss this conflict with respect. I strongly condemn any form of hate or division, knowing that there is so much more that unites us than divides us.

I acknowledge and celebrate the Wurundjeri & Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation who have a deep connection to place over thousands of years. I pay my respect to Elders who have passed into the dreaming, those here today and those of tomorrow.

I am committed to listen and engage with our First Nations people's in Casey to learn. 'Reconciliation is moving forward towards a future of respect, caring and sharing for all cultures living in harmony' (Shire of Yarra Ranges Indigenous Advisory Committee). I will work to move us forward towards reconciliation. I look to the Uluru Statement from the Heart to guide us.

• Engage with the Shire of Yarra Ranges Indigenous Advisory Committee, First Nations peak bodies and our First Nations people's in Casey in all votes, changes and policies that involve them.
• Advocate to achieve the targets set out in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap | Closing the Gap.
• Support First Nations people's history, culture and language programs being taught in schools across Casey.
• Support raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 years to at least 14 years of age. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youth are over-represented in detention at a rate of 23 times that of non-Indigenous young people.
• Support Welcome to Country and smoking ceremonies.
• Stand in front of the Aboriginal Flag, the Australian flag and the Torres Strait Island flag.

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Local History

• Coranderrk Aboriginal Station in Healesville opened in 1863 and became home to Aboriginal people from across Victoria whose lands had been stolen from them. Coranderrk is now managed by the Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation (WEAC) as its custodians.
• Yarra Ranges was the first Council in Australia to formally apologise in 1997 to the Stolen Generations 
• Yarra Ranges is home to one of the largest populations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in eastern metropolitan Melbourne.
• On 27 June 2023 Shire of Yarra Ranges voted to support a Voice to Parliament, with backing from Council's Indigenous Advisory Committee.

Actions I have taken to advocate for First Nations people's voices

In response to heightened community interest leading into the 2023 Referendum, in July 2023 I founded a local community group called Casey for YES created to meet people and share ideas to promote respect, hope and reconciliation across the federal electorate of Casey. Casey for YES with 293 members and 138 active volunteers, was a place for locals to ask questions, seek out factual information and get involved in support of the YES Vote in the referendum. In Casey the YES vote was 42%. Click here to see the full Referendum result in Casey. The YES vote was 50% or more in the following places:

After the referendum Casey for YES suggested the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) should undertake community engagement to listen and survey the electors to Change the Name of the Casey electorate to a First Nations name that is meaningful to our community, supporting the suggestion to rename the federal electorate to Barak in honour of William Barak.

• William Barak (1824 - 1903) 'Beruk' in the Woiwurrang language was a renowned and influential Indigenous Elder of the Wurundjeri and last Chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe and is recognised in the Victorian Indigenous Honour Roll. He has tribal, birth, geographic and historically significant ties to our community. He was both a diplomat and an ambassador.

• Barak campaigned for the creation of Coranderrk, contributed to its early success as a thriving, self-sufficient community, and was its indefatigable defender until the end of his life. For most of his life Barak lived at Coranderrk. He saw Coranderrk as a way for the Kulin people to maintain a physical connection to their country and Barak played a key role in educating non-Aboriginal people about this relationship.

• William Barak’s leadership included two significant ‘walks’ for land rights and recognition from Healesville to Parliament House in Melbourne, events that continue to inspire advocacy by First Nations peoples in Australia.

• Changing the name of the electorate to a prominent local Indigenous person aligns with local community sentiment that more needs to be done in promoting local Aboriginal history.

• The name Barak is consistent with the AEC naming guidelines of recognising a deceased noteworthy Australian who has made a significant contribution to public life. 

The AEC did not support the proposal to change the electorate name of Casey, but this campaign is not over with advocacy to continue to change the name.

Local resources and ways to get involved

Please connect with local services and join local community groups committed to listen and learn as we walk together towards reconciliation:

• Oonah Belonging Place - Health and Community Services Aboriginal Corporation
• Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place
• Belgrave Survival Day
• Yarra Valley Reconciliation Group
• Hills Walking Together (Facebook Group)

I believe every person has the right to be the person they want to be.

I am an ally of the queer community:

• I support equal rights for everyone regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender or religion
• I call out discrimination when I see it
• I want the world to be a better place for people who identify as LGBTQIA+
• The rights of the LGBTQIA+ members of our community are human rights and I will stand up to defend these rights.

I support a ban on gambling advertising to remove one million gambling ads each year from our TVs and radio airwaves. 

Gambling in Australia is like guns for the United States, a social cancer that is embedded in every part of our lives. Gambling advertising is everywhere. It is insidious, on our screens, on our phones. Advertising is increasingly targeted and pitched to our kids and young people, blatant online grooming of our children by gambling companies. It was noticeable to me during the 2024 Paris Olympics the absence of gambling advertising, reinforcing to me that we have been indoctrinated to accept pervasive and ever-present gambling advertising is normal, it is not.

Some fast facts:

• Australia has the highest gambling loss per person in the world
• Australians lose more than $25 billion every year to gambling
• $200 million was lost on electronic gaming machines (EGMs) in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs from 1 July to 31 December 2024
• In the Shire of Yarra Ranges, pokies players lost $15.4 million in 452 EGMs across 9 venues (July-Dec 2024) = $2.57 million each and every month. In a cost-of-living crisis our community cannot afford to lose millions each month.
• The research is clear, gambling ads are more than annoying they’re extremely harmful, particularly for kids. The harms of gambling are financial, mental health, domestic violence, family breakdown and homelessness. 

Social service groups, leaders in sport, health and business, former prime ministers, state premiers and Independent MPs have presented a compelling case to the Government to ban all gambling advertising. The evidence is clear and was detailed in the Government’s own Report 'You win some, you lose more'.  

Why are the major parties not acting when the case is so compelling, with 86% of Australians supporting a ban on gambling adverting? 

Data released in early February by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), shows that gambling, betting and hotel organisations made over $1 million in donations to the major political parties in 2024. 

• The Australian Hotels Association donated $483,189
• Tabcorp $193,000
• Sportsbet $163,000
• The Lottery Corporation $115,000.
• Individual clubs and venues also made donations.

As a Community Independent I do not accept donations from gambling, betting and hotel organisations.

Reproductive health is a human right. In Australia people of all genders should have the freedom to decide if, when and how often they want to reproduce. In Australia access to abortion is decriminalised with all reforms grounded in clinical evidence. 

Abortion is healthcare, plain and simple. It's a decision to be made between a person and their doctor, not a political football. 

Nuclear is not the answer - it’s too slow and too expensive. I'm open to any proposal that will drive down energy costs, but what I'm hearing from people in Casey is they'd rather have solar panels on their roof than a nuclear power plant in the valley.

Let's call out the Liberal Party's nuclear proposal for what it is - a distraction to extend fossil fuels well beyond their useful life and to stop investment in renewable energy. The Climate Change Authority's assessment of the Liberal Party's proposal showed that while we wait for nuclear power there would be a 'carbon emission bomb of more than 2 billion tonnes in the next 25 years.' Voting for the Liberal Party means Australia will miss all our legislated targets and make it virtually impossible to hit the bipartisan net zero by 2050 target.

The CSIRO GenCost 2024-25 report confirms that solar and wind, paired with battery storage and transmission upgrades, are the cheapest forms of new electricity generation.

The facts about Australia’s renewable energy in 2023:

• Renewables accounted for 39.4% of Australia’s total electricity supply, with a forecast 45% by end of 2024 and 48% by end of 2025.
• 5.9 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable generation capacity was added, with the Clean Energy Regulator forecasting between 7.2 and 7.5 GW of renewable capacity will be installed by the end of 2024 - a record year for new installations.
• 337,498 households and small businesses installed rooftop solar adding 3.1 GW of new capacity and another 3.15 GW of rooftop solar was forecast to be installed by end of 2024.

Cost: Nuclear is too expensive. Nuclear energy costs almost 4x as much as renewables: 16 cents per kilowatt-hour compared to 3.7 cents for solar and 4.1 cents for wind power.

Time: Nuclear is complex to get approvals and to slow to build, with best guess about 15 years from getting starting to operating. Our energy transition is now, 2040 is too late.

Jobs: Unlike renewables, Australia has no local nuclear workforce or expertise. So instead of creating jobs, a shift to nuclear will mean relying on overseas expertise and labour, sending Australian money offshore. Building a nuclear industry from scratch would be a decades-long endeavour, and in the meantime we would be reliant on foreign companies and workers.