Federal election 2022: Where does Ballarat stand with elections approaching?

Incumbent Catherine King will stand for her eighth election, representing the ALP - Ms King retained the seat in 2019 with 60.98 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

The Liberal Party has not yet announced a candidate, with pre-selection about to get under way.

It's expected other parties, including the Greens, will announce candidates soon.

Clive Palmer's United Australia Party has announced a candidate, Smythesdale's Terri Pryse-Smith.

As of Friday afternoon, the federal government has not yet set a date for the election, which must be before May 21.

The Coalition is likely to hand down its budget in March, before setting up a short campaign sprint.

Some promises have already been made in Ballarat, with Ms King bringing Labor leader Anthony Albanese to town to announce funding for the Sebastopol Senior Citizen's Centre if elected.

There has also been a commitment from the ALP to fund more free TAFE positions for in-demand trades, including in Ballarat.

There is a perception that as a "safe" Labor seat, Ballarat does not attract as much big-ticket funding - however, in the previous term, several infrastructure upgrades were provided by the federal government, including funding the Ballarat Line Upgrade that finished in early 2020, and money for the first stage of the Ballarat airport's runway lengthening works.

A key battlefield will be the pandemic response and - hopefully - its aftermath and recovery.

The federal government acted quickly to bring in JobKeeper in 2020, but since it was wound up, more devastating waves of the virus hit, with a massive impact for regional businesses.

Big-spending minor parties are making sure they have a presence in every seat, and while there are concerns - and anger - about alleged health misinformation, they are tapping into a general resentment against the major parties.

Despite more than 95 per cent of the population being double-vaccinated, and a rising proportion getting a booster, Ballarat hosted a rally led by the UAP's Craig Kelly last December.

The question for the major parties is whether they will capitulate to anti-vaccination messaging to win back some of the more conservative and very online voters, or push a more grounded health-focused message to consolidate more centrist voters.

However, pandemic aside, there must be a closer focus on Ballarat issues, and in the wider region - as well as controversies like the Western Victoria Transmission Network Project, we have a rapidly growing population and that means growing pains, from road networks becoming more congested to shockingly high house prices and low rental vacancy rates.

The City of Ballarat has repeatedly pushed its three big infrastructure priorities - upgrading the next stage of the Ballarat Link Road along Dyson Drive, a larger animal shelter, and support for a new materials recovery facility to encourage more recycling.

The project are important, council says, because of the thousands of extra people moving to Ballarat each year, including a spike through the pandemic as people fled Melbourne.

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There are a lot more cars on roads, more animals, and more rubbish that all need to be dealt with, as mayor Daniel Moloney has said.

The cash for these projects, as well as business support and extra money for local roadworks, could come from federal or state budgets or could come as election promises from either party.

This year is unusual as there will be both a federal election by May and a state election in November - there will be a lot more promises on the way.

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