Who should Hawkesbury voters choose for their Federal MP? Here’s a good place to find out…

Welcome to the very last week of the 6-week Federal Election campaign, and this Saturday all those who haven’t so far voted at pre-poll booths or via postal vote will go and eye the obligatory election snag and cast their votes.

This vote is for the Federal MP’s position, currently held by Labor’s Susan Templeman, and the successful candidate will represent the people of Macquarie – so Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains – in Canberra. The seat is Australia’s most marginal, with Ms Templeman holding it with a majority of just 371 votes at the last election in 2019.

We have 8 candidates to choose from in Macquarie and this last week Hawkesbury Post was part of the only public meet-the-candidates forum for our area, so if you still don’t know who to vote for you could do a lot worse than get along to YouTube right here and take a look at the live recording.

The event was put together by the Hawkesbury Macquarie Meet The Candidates Forum, a group of local community organisations with thousands of members between them, with Hawkesbury Post editor Tony Bosworth being the MC asking the questions. The Post has over 17,000 Facebook followers and over 8000 subscribers to its website.

Each of the 6 community groups got to ask one question, which candidates were given beforehand, and then on the evening we also had some time for questions from the floor, so from folks watching the proceedings, which meant the candidates had to act on their feet and give quick, considered answers.

The six candidates who turned up were Labor MP Susan Templeman, Liberal Sarah Richards, Tony Hickey from the Greens, Animal Justice Party’s Greg Keightley, Tony Pettitt from One Nation, while Nicole Evans of United Australia Party gave her answers in written form – she couldn’t make the Forum – and read out on the night by one of our team.

Two candidates did not reply to the Forum, despite many attempts to engage with them. Let’s pose a question – if those two candidates cannot engage – or turn up – to the Hawkesbury’s only public forum would you want them as your MP? We ask because when you have an issue you need help with, you need your MP to be there, to respond, and to help you.

The two candidates we didn’t hear from are the Liberal Democrats’ James Jackson and Michelle Palmer from Informed Medical Opinions.

Subjects covered during the Forum included:

Warragamba Dam wall – only Liberal Sarah Richards was in favour.

Climate change – One Nation’s Tony Pettitt said he believed the climate was changing naturally, as it had done over history and disputed the notion of human-induced climate change.

The third Hawkesbury river crossing – Ms Richards had previously said publicly the new bridge and road duplication could only be delivered by her – all other candidates said the third crossing would be delivered by whichever government was elected.

Flood evacuation routes – all agreed more work needed to be done on this.

Stronger protection for Western Sydney woodlands – this one saw the Greens’ Tony Hickey and Animal Justice Party’s Greg Keightley particularly impress with their knowledge and suggested actions.

And of course all candidates said they would listen to, and make representations for, anyone in the electorate no matter their political affiliations.

Questions from the floor on NDIS, and mobile comms in the Macdonald Valley saw Labor’s Templeman passionate about the Labor invented NDIS while saying more needed to be done to ensure it continued to work effectively.

On mobile comms, the reality is, progress is slow, though there have been some wins with new mobile towers, but all candidates committed to ensuring better communications across the Hawkesbury – we’ll just have to see if whoever is elected can really deliver.

And finally, some heartfelt words of thanks to the team behind this Forum. It takes a lot of organising and it requires much effort to make it work on the night. The people behind the scenes who put their hands up to help don’t do it for money, or for any form of personal recognition, they do it because they believe it is important for our community to be informed, a community they all love.

It’s hard work but it’s also fun too and the team spirit is second to none, so thanks to all involved, including those of you who watched and commented, and of course the candidates who spared their time in what is an extremely busy run up to the election to let us all know what they believe in and what they will do for our community if elected.

And finally, our nerve centre for this Forum was a large shed and we worked as rain belted the roof. As one of the team said, “you can’t get more Hawkesbury than that”.

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