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RELATED: Why is Wannon a safe Liberal seat?
Just under three years ago, the Liberal Party’s Dan Tehan was elected as the representative for Wannon for the second time with a whopping margin of more than 10 per cent.
The Liberal Party has held the seat continuously since 1955, and it has generally been regarded as safe or fairly safe.
Many voters hold the view that Wannon has been forgotten – particularly when it comes to issues such as much-needed funding for poor roads in the south-west.
The Standard set out seeking independent assessments of Mr Tehan’s performance in the past three years – what’s been delivered – but such is the seat’s low profile, no one was prepared to do so.
Deakin University politics lecturer Geoff Robinson said the perception that safe seats missed out on funding while marginal seats received extra resources was based on reality.
“I definitely think there is a pattern there,” he said.
“Something often mentioned is the duplication of the highway to Colac, which some people say is very much driven by Corangamite having become a key marginal seat.”
Candidates running against Mr Tehan say voters are missing out on services by remaining a strong Liberal seat over a long period of time.
At the 2010 federal election, the neighbouring marginal seat of Corangamite was promised more than $600 million while promises for Wannon only added up to $7.3 million.
Mr Tehan said he did not believe Wannon missed out on anything due to its safe status, saying he had worked hard for Wannon in his past six years at the helm.
“Funding announcements are made on a needs basis, and if you can demonstrate the need you can get results and I think that's been proven in the last three years,” Mr Tehan said.
Prior to the 2013 federal election, Mr Tehan pleged $10 million in funding towards Peter’s Project for the South West Cancer Centre. The centre is due to open next month and Mr Tehan said he considered it his most important achievement in the past three years.
Mr Tehan also said he was proud of the roads funding achievements including $85.3 through the Roads to Recovery program.
“My view has always been that if you have good representation and good community engagement you can deliver for your electorate,” Mr Tehan said.
“For me, the electorate has and always will come first.”
Some of the promises made in the lead-up to next week’s election include:
The Liberal Party:
- $20 million for the Henty Highway;
- $20 million for the Princes Highway between Colac and the South Australian border and
- $2.04 million for intersection blackspots.
The Labor Party:
- $23 million for Wannon schools under the Gonski reforms and
- $450,000 for Emma House.