WITH the election date set for 3 May, the “phoney war” is over, and the real battle begins. The News is currently aware of five candidates that have elected to run in Flinders in 2025: Zoe McKenzie (Liberal), Sarah Race (Labor), Ben Smith (Independent), Adam Frogley (Greens) and Mike Brown (One Nation).
In 2022, ten candidates contested the seat including two independents, and candidates from United Australia, Liberal Democrats, Animal Justice Party and Federation Party.
Independent Ben Smith had a busy week including meeting with the CEO of Homelessness Australia, Kate Colvin, to discuss the current housing crisis and explore policy solutions aimed at reducing homelessness on the Mornington Peninsula. The week culminated in his campaign launch at Dromana Estate on Sunday (30 March). Smith unveiled his “Doing Politics Differently Pledge” – a commitment to how he would remain accountable to the peninsula in Canberra. “The message I heard loud and clear today is that our community is ready for change,” Smith told the crowd. “People are feeling let down by the major parties. They feel removed from what actually happens in Canberra, and are tired of the old way of doing politics.” “For too long, the peninsula has been taken for granted as a safe seat, only getting attention when an election rolls around. I want to change that. It’s time to make politics work for people by truly involving them in the process. Today marks the start of a new chapter in our representation.”
Smith’s pledge to the community is to:
- Conduct regular electorate-wide surveys to gauge residents’ positions on upcoming legislation and issues
- Conduct monthly town hall meetings across different peninsula locations to ensure continuous community engagement
- Create a direct gateway to Canberra for local people and organisations
- Commit to put the peninsula interests first in all parliamentary decisions and to fight hard for them.
Recent polling shows Smith within striking distance of incumbent Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie. Those polls, if accurate, would have Smith leaping ahead of Labor in the two party preferred contest. Labor candidate Sarah Race spent the first official day of the campaign pulling out weeds with the volunteers at Friends of Flinders Coastline and welcoming in the new footy season supporting the Rye Football Club.
Race believes she has been walking alongside the community and listening for months, and that won’t change now that the election has been called. “With the election just around the corner, Australians are facing a clear choice: Labor’s plan to keep building or Peter Dutton’s cuts,” said Race. “Last week’s budget was further evidence that Labor will continue to deliver responsible and meaningful cost of living relief for Australian families. “Meanwhile the Coalition has voted against every single cost of living measure that Labor has taken to parliament.”
Race welcomed Labor’s budget and election pitch telling The News it provides cost of living relief to every household including:
- More tax cuts for every taxpayer
- More energy bill relief for every household and small business
- More bulk billing to help Australians see a GP for free, and cheaper medicines
- More investment in every stage of education
- More help to get Australians into a home of their own
Race said, “The Coalition has voted against every single cost of living relief measure. The Liberals can’t be trusted with cost-of-living relief, or support for publicly funded services like schools, health and social care. You will be worse off under Dutton”.
Liberal candidate and incumbent Member for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, couldn’t disagree more. “Labor’s budget was one to get the government through the next five weeks and will shackle future generations to unresolvable debt. Under Labor, gross debt will rocket past $1 trillion next financial year. This year alone, interest payments to Australia’s lenders will reach more than $24 billion, rising to $27 billion next year. That is $27 billion which cannot be spent on roads, rail, new housing, better health and education services and the country’s defence,” said McKenzie.
“Last week, Peter Dutton set out a clear alternative for Australia – one which guarantees our prosperity and security and which will get Australia back on track. “Instead of offering Australians a 73c a day tax cut from 1 July 2026, the Coalition has promised to halve the fuel excise, saving the average household in the Mornington Peninsula approximately $1,500 a year.” McKenzie argued the fuel excise changes would have enhanced impact due to the lack of public transport infrastructure and high dependence on cars on the peninsula. “We are a driving community – with the second highest incidence of tradies anywhere in the country, we are reliant on our cars and utes to get around and the cost of fuel is constantly raised with me.”
“I served in the last Coalition government that retired a generation of Labor’s debt and in the early 2000s. “Thanks to Labor’s mismanagement of the Australian economy, and the delivery of a dangerous 2025 budget – that option will be denied the next generation of Australians, and we will be in a constant battle to redress the reckless spending and decade of debt and deficit left to future generations by Labor,” said McKenzie.
Picture: Supplied
Greens candidate Adam Frogley welcomed his party’s stand on ending homelessness and housing insecurity. “Rising rents and property values means low -income local residents on the Mornington Peninsula are being forced out of the region – away from their families and support networks – or are being rendered homeless.” Homelessness Australia, the national peak body for homelessness in Australia, welcomed the Greens’ plan to end homelessness by investing in evidence-based models.
“The Greens will follow successful international models such as Finland’s ‘Housing First’ program which has virtually eliminated chronic homelessness, and been successful in pilot projects in Australia,” said Frogley. “The total cost of the plan to solve homelessness is $12.7 billion over the next four years, and would be funded through the Greens plan to tax big corporations, including the big banks.
“The Greens proposal is to build 50,000 ongoing Housing First tenancies, which are based on this model with a particular emphasis on youth. “The Greens have also proposed doubling federal funding to the states for homelessness support and social housing.
Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin said, “Our housing crisis has only worsened, even with people on middle incomes struggling to find homes they can afford.” “If we are going to fix homelessness, we need to fix the housing crisis and provide the support people need to keep their home when they have health problems and other support needs.”
The plan sits alongside the Greens previously launched plan to address Australia’s shortfall in genuinely affordable housing by establishing a public property developer to build 610,000 homes over the coming decade and sell and rent them at well below market rates, with 20% allocated to those on the lowest incomes.
The Greens also propose stopping unlimited rent increases to 2% every two years and regulate the banks to deliver fairer, lower mortgages. They propose to phase out tax handouts including negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, and establish a Renters Protection Authority to enforce renters’ rights.
First published in the Mornington News – 1 April 2025
