Nationals retain Euroa

DESPITE a small two-party preferred swing away, the Nationals have comfortably retained the seat of Euroa at last Saturday’s state election.

Not so small was the change in first preference votes, with new member Annabelle Cleeland, recording a near 25 per cent swing against her.

Ms Cleeland’s election came on the back of the retirement of popular sitting member, and former Nationals deputy-leader, Steph Ryan.

“My inspiration from Steph Ryan is that she was a young women with a great professional past,” Ms Cleeland.

“She had the capabilities to do the job effectively and was empathetic but a powerful community advocate.”

As for what her focus would be when representing the people of Heathcote and surrounds, Ms Cleeland said she wants to work collaboratively with the State Government on basic issues, but is also seeking to hold it to account.

“Overall, in the last eight years, we’ve seen a real disparity of investment between Melbourne and regional Victoria, I really want to champion greater investment into regional Victoria,’ she said.

“In Heathcote that includes adequate health services for the population growth that it’s experienced and seen a lot of young families move to the area.

“Where we need road investment, we’ll be highlighting the consequences of a poor road network and what that means for car accidents.

“This investment we’re seeking isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.”

Ms Cleeland noted that there were a number of pre-election commitments that were matched by both parties, and she was keen to see action on them soon.

“I think one of the best things for the Heathcote region is a lot of our commitments were also supported by Labor,” she said.

“We’re going to see investment in the Heathcote SES and CFA get off the ground in this term.

“As we saw after the floods, this is quite crucial to have a fit for purpose place to deal with fire and flood going forward.”

With Euroa running from the edge of Bendigo to the edge of Wangaratta and as far south as Kilmore, Ms Cleeland said keeping connected with the region will be a challenge.

“What I’d like to introduce quite quickly is traveling office space where every community has a chance to approach me and be engaged,” she said.

“One thing I’d like to do is continue to accumulate personal stories around issues that impact our communities that I can then echo back into parliament.

“I’ve just spent the last three months traveling the entire electorate, which is 11-and-a-half-thousand square kilometres.

“I’ll be doing that all over again just to make sure that I can advocate effectively in parliament.”

On a two-party preferred basis, people who voted at the Heathcote booth supported Ms Cleeland over her Labor party rival, Angela Tough, 775 to 697.

Voting patterns at Redesdale were closer, with Ms Cleeland winning there 94 to 93, but at the Puckapunyal polling place support for the Nationals was more definitive, taking a 96 to 69 result.