a week on the campaign trail

A busy week on the campaign trail, my week started in Gippsland with Senator Sarah Hanson Young, Greens candidate for the Senate Dr Richard di Natale, Michael Bond candidate for Gippsland and Dr Malcolm McKelvie candidate for McMillan. Richard was there to announce the Clean Energy Plan, whilst Sarah was there to announce the Greens policy on Student Income Support.

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Senator Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson on Education, says the current compromise scheme which passed through Federal Parliament earlier this year was far from perfect and has created an unfair system that doles out or denies assistance with no real reference to students' needs.

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"We know many students in regional areas have missed out on access to the full rate of Youth Allowance under the new scheme,'' Senator Hanson-Young said. "For example in Yarram in Victoria, students who go to the same school and live across the road from each other get help or miss out depending on which side of the road they are on."

The week also saw a fundraiser for the Greens Casey and Latrobe campaigns at Earthly Pleasures Organic Cafe in Belgrave.

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Jim and Brendan compare campaign notes.

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Supporters came out to hear from our candidates, Jim Reiher (Latrobe) and Brendan Powell (Casey) who talked about the importance of campaigning to assist Dr Richard di Natale for a seat in the senate.

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No fundraiser is complete without a raffle, here I'm supported by Jim and Brendan for the barrel draw. If you'd like to buy your own Greens t-shirt or other Greens merchandise to support the campaign visit http://vic.greens.org.au/shop.

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On Thursday Jon Faine visited McEwen, the country's most marginal seat held by the Liberals by 31 votes, to talk to candidates from the Greens, Labor and Liberal.

Many people expressed concerns about logging in the local Healesville region. .

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I spoke about the lack of emphasis on climate change from Liberal and Labor and that many in my community were telling me this was a key issue for them. Thanks to Brent Lukey for the photo.

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Thursday was also a celebration of the momentous Brown Mountain decision. The Supreme Court upheld the injunction of logging of Brown Mountain where Justice Robert Osborn held that the detection of long-footed potoroos and other endangered species meant that steps must be taken to protect their habitat.

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It was a landmark decision for the environment, I gathered with Environment East Gippsland campaigners on the steps of Parliament to ask Minister for the Environment, Gavin Jennings, to respond to the Supreme Court decision.

Here I am pictured with Colleen Hartland (Greens MLC for Western Metropolitan), Michael Bond (Greens candidate for Gippsland) and Greg Barber (Greens MLC for Northern Metropolitan). The Brown Mountain decision is a great victory for those endangered species threatened by logging activities in Victoria.

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Thursday also saw a Meet the Candidates Q&A for Latrobe. Curiously the candidate for the Australian Sex Party wasn't allowed to join the panel even though he was there, the Liberal incumbent Jason Wood didn't attend, which left Greens candidate Jim Reiher and the Labor candidate to talk policies whilst attendees were treated to thought provoking commentary by panel members Karen Alexander (Landcare) and Kenneth Davidson (Dissent).

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Jim Reiher discusses Greens policies to locals gathered at the Upwey Hall. If you'd like to know more about the full range Greens federal policies click here.

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Locals came out in force on a chilly Thursday night to hear the policy views of candidates.

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Sunday saw senate candidate, Dr Richard di Natale, visit Warburton in the seat of McEwen to talk to locals about the potential for their town to have a major tourist attraction like the Otway Fly in the region.

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Locals were keen to quiz Richard about a full range of Greens policies.

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Greens candidate for McEwen, Steve Meacher joined Dr Richard di Natale and me to talk to locals. It was a cold misty day in Warburton, but people were keen to talk to the Greens about the upcoming election.

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If you'd like to follow the campaign in its final stages visit the Victorian Greens website here.

greens to kickstart clean energy sector

It was terrific to join with Victorian Senate candidate Dr Richard Di Natale, out in Gippsland, as he called for the implementation of a Gross National Feed-In Tariff to kick-start the renewable energy sector in regional Victoria.

Research by Access Economics and the Electrical Trades Union has shown that a gross national feed-in tariff would lead to the creation of an additional 5,400 jobs in Victoria, particularly regional Victoria, over the next ten years.

It makes good sense, it's good for the economy, good for the environment, good for regional Victoria.

Pictured left to right: Malcolm McKelvie – candidate for McMillan, Dr Richard di Natale – senate candidate for Victoria, Michael Bond – candidate for Gippsland, Sarah Hanson-Young – Greens Senator and Samantha Dunn – candidate for Eastern Victoria (state), in front of Hazelwood Power Station, the developed world's most polluting power station. Victoria's greenhouse gas emissions from power generation are continuing to grow due to our ongoing reliance on brown coal.

Over 22 thousand jobs could be created in Australia over the next 10 years in the renewables sector if we implemented a gross national feed-in tariff.

For Victoria and in particular regional Victoria, this would translate to around 5,400 extra jobs over the next 10 years.

Renewable energy employs on average 4-6 times as many people than fossil fuel energy and most of these jobs would be in regional areas.

"So far, Federal Government initiatives have failed to stimulate the market and keep solar manufacturers within Australia. Australia's last solar manufacturer left Australian shores in April 2009. There was a time when the majority of our panels were Australian-made but now all our solar panels are imported," said Greens senate candidate, Richard di Natale.

• According to a report produced by Sustainability Victoria for the Victorian Government, a gross feed-in tariff set at 40 cents per kWh with a cap of 200,000 units would lead to $2.1 billion in investment and would generate 3,000 new jobs in Victoria by 2015. This would increase retail electricity prices by just 1%, equating to an increase of 17 cents per week for Victorian electricity consumers.

• At 60 cents per kWh, a gross feed-in tariff would generate 5,400 new jobs within Victoria in the next ten years.

• According to Access Economics, "the cumulative employment in the solar industry in Australia delivered from a gross national feed-in tariff from 2010 to 2020 is just under 40,300, compared with a cumulative 17,750 under the existing set of feed-in tariff policies. This amounts to an increase of 22,550 jobs for the forecast period."

• For Victoria, employment peaks at just below 500 per annum under existing policies, whereas under a gross state feed-in tariff, employment would peak at just under 1,200 per annum. When aggregated across the period 2010 to 2020, the existing feed-in tariff and solar credits will create around 4,200 jobs in Victoria, compared with 9,600 created by the joint operation of a gross state feed-in tariff and the solar credits scheme.

a green weekend

A big weekend of green events. It started at the Kallista Market, a local community market spanning the federal electorates of Latrobe and Casey. The local Greens had a stall to promote our federal candidates Jim Reiher (Latrobe) and Brendan Powell (Casey).















Samantha Dunn (Yarra Ranges Councillor and candidate in the state election for Eastern Victoria) and Jim Reiher (Latrobe candidate) at Kallista Market, locals were keen to hear what the Greens had to say.

Saturday night saw the launch of the Latrobe and Holt campaign in Doveton.




















Candidate for Latrobe, Jim Reiher and Holt, Frank di Mascolo, were joined by me and fellow Greens councillor from Casey, Cr Lynette Kelleher.

Sunday was the launch of the Victorian Greens Federal Campaign at the Northcote Town Hall. It was a day of courage and compassion with leadership and vision.

Dr Richard di Natale, the Greens lead senate candidate for Victoria, leading the charge on preventative health policies for Australia.

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Steve Meacher, Greens candidate for McEwen, the country's most marginal seat with Dr Richard di Natale and Cr Samantha Dunn and Greens candidate for Eastern Victoria (state election).

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Adam Bandt, candidate for Melbourne, who has the chance of taking the first lower house seat in a general election if 1 in every 10 voters changes their vote from the ALP to the Greens.

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Dr Malcolm McKelvie, Greens candidate for McMillan and local GP, pictured with Greens MLC, Sue Pennicuik and Cr Samantha Dunn.

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The candidates line up, an impressive bunch representing the Greens across Victoria.

yarragon planting future seeds

Today I joined Richard Di Natale and other Greens candidates in Yarragon to talk about the value of preventative health programs.

Richard, the Greens lead Senate candidate for Victoria, has been touring regional Victoria to highlight the Greens Health Plan.

Both Andrew and Bryce, Grade Sixers at Yarragon Primary School are enjoying a chance to get out of the classroom and into the vegie patch. Here they are pictured with Greens candidates from left to right: Samantha Dunn – Eastern Victoria, Dr Richard Di Natale – Victoria and Dr Malcolm McKelvie – McMillan.

It was terrific to talk about an initiative of the Yarragon Primary School which sees Grade 5 and 6's work outside of the school on various garden projects.

The Community Garden Project, plays a central role in providing the vegie patch and the food for the school program and stems from an initiative by Dr Malcolm McKelvie, Green's Federal Candidate for McMillan.

The program aims to equip students with skills, not only in the garden, but in the kitchen too and matches community mentors with young people to help foster and build connections in the broader community.

Born out of the community and struggling to continue to run unfunded, it is a great example of the sort of preventative program the Greens support as part of a package of initiatives that address long term healthy living.

As part of the Greens Plan the primary care system would become needs-based, so that all Victorians could get better access to health care professionals like GPs, psychologists, even dieticians, before they're sent to hospital and junk food advertising aimed at kids would be banned, and foods would be better labelled to allow shoppers to make informed, health based decisions.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that's what is happening on the ground in Yarragon.