Victorian 2022 Election: Independent for Ripon Wayne Rigg

The Newlyn candidates' forum catalysed your views about Ripon needing an independent who lives in the electorate. Why?

I've been thinking about for a fair while now about running, watching what's going on. People really have had enough of the major parties coming out of the woodwork at election time, making a bunch of announcements, and then disappearing again for three years.

What's your view on the powerlines issue?

It's a complex issue, no doubt about that. But it's been ballsed up from the start. The sitting member is suggesting they shift the problem to someone else, which is not a solution at all, it just moves the problem. The Labor candidate says it's been messed up, and they'll fight to stop it. My view is it should stop right now, there should be a complete review of how this has come about, how it's been conducted, and get sensible heads back to the table to try and figure out a sensible way forward.

Is it the most significant issue in the electorate?

Roads are a major issue. I really don't know where we've dropped the ball there, whether we just take the lowest tender to these days, whether our standards are wrong. But we need to start building infrastructure that will actually last the test of time, actually service the needs of not only our rural and regional communities within Ripon but also those growth areas around Creswick and Miners Rest and the western parts of Ballarat.

The cost of living is a big issue for everyone; it's a complex issue with inputs from all three tiers of government; it's not something that's easily fixed. But the problem I see, when you look at all of the issues around the electorate: the two major parties, if one is in and the other is in opposition, all the opposition can do is throw rocks at the party in government, and if you're in government, all you can do is toe the line for the party.

Infrastructure is another big issue. They fail to address the infrastructure issues like the Link Road that's been talked around for as long as I can remember, around mobile phone towers - how do we build infrastructure in big suburbs in the western growth areas of Ballarat that can't even pick up the phone and dial 000 on their mobile phones? We try and play catch up; we've got to get smarter at planning, we've got to get smarter at infrastructure. And we've got to work with communities to actually develop what they need.

You were intolerant of corruption when you were a councillor; you resigned from council over what was going on in Ballarat at the time. Is that passion for integrity and transparency something you will also offer if you are elected?

I stand on my record. When I was in council for that six years,I did some hard yards. We did to try and clean that up. Everyone expects that. People call it integrity, people call it honesty, call it whatever you want, but at the end of the day, there's a standard our community expects.

As you start talking about honesty and integrity and all these issues, people are suspicious straightaway in government about what's going on. Openness and transparency is the best way to go about it. The key thing is stick to the rules. If you by some chance, make a mistake, own it and fix it, because no one's perfect. But if people are doing things deliberately, they should be called out and they should be dealt with.