FOR many Wallan voters, Saturday’s state election will be the dawn of a new era, as the township west of the Hume Freeway moves into the newly-created seat of Kalkallo.
A redistribution of electoral boundaries resulted in the creation of the Kalkallo electorate, with Wallan joining fellow Mitchell Shire township Beveridge in a 262-square-kilometre strip stretching south to Craigieburn.
Vying to represent voters in Kalkallo will be Labor’s Ros Spence – the current member for the soon-to-be-abolished seat of Yuroke, which she has represented since 2014 – along with Liberal candidate Bikram Singh, Frances Lowe of the Animal Justice Party, the Greens’ Muhammad Nisar Ul Murtaza, Smiley Sandhu of the New Democrats, Das Sayer from Family First Victoria, Victorian Socialists candidate Sergio Monsalve Tobon and independents Callum French and Jimmy Parel.
At a candidates forum hosted by the Review earlier this month, Ms Spence highlighted transport, infrastructure, cost of living measures and health as her biggest priorities, while Ms Lowe said funding for infrastructure and roads was vital. Mr Monsalve Tobon said taxing developers to pay for community infrastructure in a rapidly growing area would be his priority, and Mr French said he would aim simply to get as much funding for the region as possible.
Mr Singh was unable to attend the forum, but earlier told the Review improving the quality of roads and community welfare projects were important to him.
Among pledges from Labor in the lead-up to the election are $5 million for stage one of Wallan’s Greenhill Recreation Precinct and $50,000 to complete a masterplan for a new recreation reserve in Beveridge.
Both the Liberal-Nationals Coalition and Labor have pledged $130 million for a project on the border of Kalkallo and the neighbouring Yan Yean electorate – the completion of a diamond interchange on the Hume Freeway at Wallan East, along with upgrades to Watson Street.
ABC election analyst Antony Green has projected the electorate as a safe Labor seat, with most polling locations inside its boundaries polling strongly in favour of Labor at the 2018 state election.
A pending State Government decision on a quarry south of Wallan could sway voters opposed to the project, with Ms Spence remaining tight-lipped on whether she supported the quarry at the forum.
