Emmanuel College students have grilled state election candidates Roma Britnell and Kylie Gaston ahead of Saturday’s vote.
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As part of a series of candidate forums hosted by The Standard, students from Warrnambool schools were given the opportunity to ask questions at a mock media conference.
Mrs Gaston, the Labor candidate and a current Warrnambool City councillor who is on leave, said when she was door knocking before the last council election car parking was the hot issue.
She said this time around it was all about roads.
“I’ve been door-knocking from Nelson to Panmure and it’s roads, roads, roads” she said.
“It’s certainly on people's minds. People want to see improvements and it’s gotten to the point where people are genuinely worried. This government has put in about $40 million over the past four years and so has the Federal Government too, to it’s credit, but we need to do a lot more.
“We need to have a lot more investment in the area. You can feel that it is coming, it’s on its way. Foxhow Road is a lot better now, Hamilton Highway has certainly improved, Portland certainly has too. It’s really resonating everywhere I door-knock, so I’d like to fight hard to see our roads improve across the whole region.”
She said the south-west produced more than a third of the state’s food and fibre products, so the region “deserved better than crappy roads”.
Sitting MP Roma Britnell said the state of the roads was the biggest issue in the electorate.
“It’s number one,” she said.
“People are concerned about their safety. When I see the amount of money that has come to the region and it being wasted – potholes are being fixed five times in three months – it tells me that the current government doesn’t know how to run a business. You have to do things well once. There’s not a margin for wastage in business.”