Addison welcomes Wendouree re-election

SITTING Member for Wendouree, Juliana Addison, has retained her seat following the State election on Saturday.

Ms Addison won with a slight two-party preferred swing to her and nearly 50 per cent of the primary vote.

Liberal candidate and City of Ballarat Cr Samantha McIntosh came in second, impacted by nearly six per cent local primary vote swing away from the Liberal Party.

Surrounded by her campaign team, volunteers, family and parliamentary colleagues, Ms Addison celebrated her win at Ballarat Trades Hall on Saturday night.

First been elected in 2018, she said she’s excited to continue representing Labor for her electorate.

“The result is just extraordinary. The re-election of an Andrews Labor Government that I get to be a part of is going to transform lives,” she said.

“All of the amazing initiatives that we’d had eight years of, we will bed down for another four years. This will become a part of Victoria’s social fabric.

“Regional Victoria plays such an important part in Labor’s story. In the last budget, 35 per cent of the budget was for regional Victoria.”

Ms Addison said her priorities will be to continue delivering on the region’s election commitments.

“VLine train tickets are going to be $9.20 in March and $4.60 for concession. We’re going to deliver that,” she said.

“We’re going to deliver a new PET scanning machine for people who have cancer and epilepsy.

“We’re going to continue to put half-a-billion dollars into the hospital in Drummond Street to have world-class care on our doorstep.

“What we’re going to do is work harder than we ever have before for the next four years because governing is a gift and we’re not going to waste it.”

In response to the defeat, Cr McIntosh said although she maintained an “amazing” campaign, the people of Ballarat have made their decision.

“We had a $10 billion plan to fix potholes. We had a 25 per cent regional infrastructure guarantee and a big opportunity to fix our health crisis,” she said.

“We’re still experiencing significant ramifications of how COVID was managed. Our businesses and people are suffering, and that will go on. The people have decided they want more of the same.

“I’d like to thank our great supporters of our future and vision. This is the wonderful thing about our country, our democracy, an opportunity for people to state their views.”