The Courier sat down with incumbent candidate for Wendouree, Juliana Addison to discuss the upcoming election on November 26.
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Why are you running again? What made you want to say yes to another election and potentially another term?
"I absolutely love this job. It is one of the greatest opportunities to be able to represent your community. I grew up here, I am a girl from Alfredton and to be able to be a really strong voice to say, what can we do to make Ballarat even better, and just go in there and fight via community every day, it is the best job in the world for me.
"The last four years have been so disrupted and I had all of these ideas about what being a member of parliament might look like. I would go to schools and visit kindergartens and I would cut ribbons, and I do a whole lot of things.
"Then you have a global pandemic and you have desperate people on the end of the phone who are stuck on the wrong side of the border. You had local businesses who do not know what they are going to do, because they have had these restrictions that we could not even imagine, imposed on them. We've got kids not going to school and doing home learning.
"All of that other stuff is really important, but this is absolutely essential work. Whilst it was really, really hard we were able to get some really good outcomes. We were able to support families, kids that needed to get to school, I was able to advocate to the education minister saying their parents are not essential workers, but the family is having a really tough time. How do we actually provide a pathway, both parents were struggling at the moment having the kids at home, and our schools were just incredible, opening up their doors.
"It was really different, I thought I would have all these policy ideas and I would be able to sort of pursue passion projects. But it really came down to rolling my sleeves up and doing whatever needed to be done.
"And so whilst it was really, really hard and really long. Like everyone I was tuning into those press conferences at 11 o'clock, with the premier making the announcements. There are so many memories of every Sunday, the 11 o'clock presser would happen. It went on till about 12.30. And then I will just sit on Facebook, responding to every single request. What does this mean for my circumstances?
"It was a really extraordinary time to live through. But now I would really like to get on with doing some of these passion projects."
Are there still policies and ideas on the table that you want to put forward?
"For me everything boils down to fairness and equality. What are we doing to make things fair? I guess that really drives me.
"Also within parliament, you get to do extraordinary committee work. I have been able to do an amazing inquiry into the issues, or the barriers that face disadvantaged job seekers. Being able to talk about how we support people with disabilities to access TAFE.
"I also get to chair the gender equality advisory committee that is working with people across the local government to try and get more women involved in local government elections, to get 50 per cent of all councillors to be women at the 2024 election.
"All of that work is unfinished business. I have unfinished business, there is so much more than I need to do.
"I feel I have developed a whole lot of skills over the last four years in terms of understanding how to be a better advocate and how to amplify the voices of our community, and how to get stuff done.
"Now I have all of those skills. I want to be able to just continue on to do all the great things for people in our community."
We have need a number of senior members of the state Labor party deciding not to contest the next election, is stepping into a ministry something that could potentially be on the cards for you?
"I love being the member for Wendouree and representing our community.
"But I feel that I have got a lot more to give. If the opportunities came up in the future, I would certainly welcome the opportunity to contribute more in whatever way that may look like."
If you had to pick one issues heading into the state election was is the biggest challenge facing your constituents?
"I think cost of living pressures.
"I was at a supermarket the other day doing a street stall in Sebastopol and a woman walked out with with her young kids.
"I asked her how she was and she said she had to hand all her groceries back, because she could not afford them
"It was just that moment, when you realize that things are so tough for people. These are not luxury goods, this is not being able to pay for groceries.
"What we really need to do is just think about what are the ways that we can reduce the stress on families.
"Over the last four years, we've provided 93,000 breakfasts at schools just in Wendouree. That is really important. That changes their day, that changes their participation, that changes their outcomes. Because if you are hungry, you are missing out.
"We are doing free kinder as well. What happens when you are in a situation where as a family, you have to decide, are we going to be paying the bills? Are we going to be paying the mortgage? How do I pay for a kinder placement for my three year old?
"We are going to do free kinder next year, for every single kid, no matter what their background is, or whatever the pressures are on their families, so kinder is not a luxury."
Do you find that cost of living is coming up more when you are speaking to people?
"I think COVID has really exposed a lot of disadvantage in our community that we did not know about before. When you look at issues of food insecurity and people needing support from our incredible community organizations, they are seeing families have never seen before.
"We have recently done the priority Primary Care Center in Windermere Street that the UFS is running.
"People are putting off appointments, because they can not get in to see a GP. Or there are no GPS available that bulk bill and they are not actually getting the support they need.
"What we are saying to people is you should not have to make the choice between looking after yourself or looking after a loved one, and being able to pay the bills.
"The other announcement that I am incredibly proud of, is our five days sick pay guarantee.
"If you're a contractor or an eligible, casual worker, what we learned during COVID Is that people go to work, because they can't afford not to go to work.
"What that means is they come into work, and then they make a whole lot of other people sick and that not good for your workplace."
Our reader survey identified integrity as one of the most important things for the people of Ballarat. Why is this important and what are you working on in this area?
"Every day, the I get paid for by the people in my community, I work for them every day, I serve them. That is my job. There is 48,000 people that vote for me, and they pay my wages.
"I think it is really important that people do know where political donations are coming from, that if people are making donations, and they're influencing decision makers, we need to know that.
"If all of a sudden a government is making a decision that could impact our environment, or it could impact industry or it could impact funding for a hospital, and certain players have contributed significantly. That needs to be transparent.
"I am really glad that we have got these disclosure laws now and the maximum anyone can contribute or any organization contribute to a political candidates campaign fund is $4250. That is that is disclosed on the VEC website. So if people want to know who has donated to me, any donations over $1,000 must be listed.
So people can say, well, Julianna has made this decision, is there any other reason why she has made this decision? Is there any other reason why she is being a champion for insert X?
In terms of Ballarat City Council's big six projects, are you across them and how are you working towards those?
Mental Health Facility:
"We know for mental health, the system was broken. That is why we have done the Royal Commission into mental health. We are all touched by mental health, if it is not our own family, it's a neighbor, it's a friend. And that is why the Andrews Labor government is investing $4 billion for the recommendations, every single recommendation. And I know that with Ballarat being the third largest city in Victoria, there will be funding for the best services for those recommendations to come through for our young people, for our struggling parents.
"We are going to have a lot more to say about this if I am reelected, but the $4 billion will be there and Ballarat will benefit greatly and about time."
Sovereign Hill:
"I think Sovereign Hill is so important to the Ballarat identity. I was so pleased that under the regional tourism infrastructure fund, announced in May that Sovereign Hill was awarded $6.6 million to do more work.
"We have been great supporters of sovereign hill throughout the lockdowns, we know that their workforce and visitations was very heavily impacted with the closing of international borders and closing of state borders.
"We have been big supporters of Sovereign Hill and I am a life member, conflict of interest, I am always transparent. I am a life member of Sovereign Hill and I will continue to champion their need for greater funding so they can continue to tell our beautiful story of Eureka as well as life on the Goldfields."
Circular Economy:
"I am pleased that we have just prior to going into caretaker, announced some funding of $32,000. To do some planning work on circular economy work, which is going to be a good start to be able to look further about how as a government, we continue to support the city of Ballarat.
"The university town is something that has really activated my imagination about what Ballarat could be when you think of great cities of the world, whether it be Boston, Oxford or Cambridge.
"We will be working further, I hope with Federation University, we are bringing the business school in from Mount Helen, which will be terrific for our local traders for the vibrancy of the city. And there is great plans about moving the performing arts over to the SMB site from Camp St. I'm a big supporter of that."
Sporting Precinct:
"That $150 million will mean that we will be having an incredible venue for those two weeks and for decades to come.
"We will be able to host more events we will be able to have more elite sport, whether it be rugby league rugby union, I would love to have the Foo Fighters at Ballarat.
"Then when you look at like every student across Ballarat, I certainly did my time at Llanberris on extreme heat days or extreme cold days and everything like that to be able to have a 21st century athletics track that is here to stay, its going to be in the heart Wendouree, it is incredible."
Link Road:
"I look over to what was farming land as a kid, which is now literally 1000s of houses. The east - west road that run from Dyson Drive into town is a C grade road. It was built for farmers, it was built for tractors, it wasn't built for 1000s of people to travel upon.
"I have made it really clear that my priority is that we need to duplicate Ballarat-Carngham Rd from Dyson drive.
"Why that is really the most important piece in the puzzle is that if you are a nurse, you live in Alfredton Grove (an estate) and you have children at Ballarat High or any of the schools in Sturt Street.
"You do not need to drive north, you do not need to drive south, you need to be able to get your kids to Ballarat High on your way to the hospital.
"Link road is not going to benefit any of those residents, at the moment.
"In the last budget, I got $6.6 million for the planning and pre construction work. I honestly believe that until we fix that piece of the puzzle, you can have a north south road but it does not actually get you into Ballarat.
"The current road is more pressing for me than Dyson Drive, at the moment. Dyson drive is really important and the duplication of Dyson drive is really important.
"But for me, governing is about prioritizing and what is needed immediately. This is the must build road before we actually get to Link Road."
- This interview has been edited for clarity