Empty seats at pre-election forum

FOUR of Ballarat’s eight Federal election candidates gathered at the Ballarat Central Uniting Church to discuss their policies and answer questions in anticipation of 21 May vote.

Those present included Federal Member for Ballarat, Catherine King, Greens candidate John Barnes, independent Alex Graham, and the Australian Federation Party’s Kerryn Sedgman. Notably missing from the discussion was Liberal’s Ben Green.

BCUC’s former council chair Adri Stickland chaired the night, introducing the candidates and steering the proceedings of each topic.

Candidates were asked to clarify their positions on the issues of climate change and government integrity.

Following these topics, attendees were invited to pose questions, which ranged from matters around educational funding to asylum seekers to healthcare.

Fiona Christie asked the candidates about their policies regarding the coordination of government in response to climate change, and said she felt her topic was well-responded to.

“I thought it was excellent, and it was brilliant to hear some of the candidates responding to some of the questions fully and talking about some of the issues they thought were important going forward,” she said.

“It was very professionally-organised as well. The convenor did a brilliant job, and handled it incredibly well.

“It would have been good to have had more people from the LNP attending because we certainly have a lot of questions for them too.”

Resident Les George said although the event was well-run, there wasn’t enough variation between the topics and the candidates.

“There was only four here and they were all the same. No one disagreed,” he said.

“I like to look at different views. I look at FOX, and I look at the ABC, because you never get the one group and opinion.

“That was a disappointing part, that there wasn’t the full range. I would’ve preferred if everyone showed up.”