ALP launches Wendouree campaign

PARTY faithful filled the club rooms at Wendouree West Recreation Reserve last Friday for the official launch of the Labor Party’s campaign to retain the electorate of Wendouree.

About 80 people, along with Premier Daniel Andrews, were on hand to hear about Juliana Addison’s vision for the seat.

“I love Ballarat,” Ms Addison said. “I was born in the electorate and I grew up here.

“Ballarat is also where I choose to raise my family, it’s where I choose to live.

“We could not think of a better place where we would want to raise our girls.”

In a back-to-basics speech Ms Addison said core issues like health, education and employment were important to the electorate.

As a teacher, education was a clear focus to her pitch and she underscored what she saw as the current government’s local achievements in primary, secondary and tertiary education, and the flow on benefits.

“This is good for our local economy,” she said.

“It means that there are going to be skilled workers working in our community, making our economy strong, and that’s good for Ballarat business.”

A $461 million commitment to redevelop the Ballarat Hospital site also drew praise from Ms Addison.

“It is going to create 1300 jobs and 10 per cent of those will be apprentices,” she said.

“It’s going to be such a big job people will start and finish their apprenticeships on that job.”

If successful in holding the seat for Labor, Ms Addison will succeed Sharon Knight MP who is retiring from state politics.

The electorate of Wendouree was formed out of the old seat of Ballarat West before the 2014 election and the area has been held by the ALP since the late 1990s.

Other candidates currently running include Amy Johnston for the Liberals and Alice Barnes for the Greens.