We are in a climate emergency. Victoria should be leading the renewables industry, lowering energy prices for households and businesses, creating jobs, and pushing back against global warming. Renewables are the cheapest source of electricity generation in Australia. We must phase out fossil fuels and encourage the electrification of industry and transport. 

But protecting the environment is more than an economic issue. It’s about creating surroundings that nurture our physical and mental wellbeing, and strengthen our connections with nature.

Here in the Albert Park electorate we are blessed with unique environmental resources, which desperately need protection and investment that has been in short supply for too many years. 

As your representative, I will advocate for the following:

• Continued promotion of renewable energy production and storage to drive down living costs
  • Within the Albert Park electorate, I’ll focus strongly on ways to help renters access renewable energy 
• Statewide measures to accelerate the electrification of transport and industry
  • Work with all levels of government to expand access to electric vehicle charging within the Albert Park electorate
• Proper funding to repair and rejuvenate Albert Park Reserve and lake for all users of Australia’s most famous park – not just the GP
• Protecting our beautiful precious bay and coastline
  • Top local priorities include the St Kilda penguin colony, beach duning, cleaning rivers and creeks, and mitigating bayside flooding 
• Waste reduction and the extension of the circular economy in business and in homes

 

Over the past 12 years, the Victorian Labor Government has built a long track record of avoiding independent assessment and scrutiny of its policies and administration. Examples include:-

• Lack of public business plans and independent external cost-benefit assessments of major projects such as the NE Link, Suburban Rail Loop, Westgate Tunnel, and even the Grand Prix.
• Failure to reform and strengthen IBAC in comprehensive and timely fashion
• No proper funding of FOI, IBAC, the Auditor General, and the Victorian Ombudsman
• Failure to respond properly to widespread evidence of rorting and corruption on major projects
• An election funding deal between the major parties that has since been struck down by the High Court because it was fundamentally unfair. 

Whether Labor’s major projects and policies are good or bad is immaterial - the fact is, they were not consistently independently tested beforehand, and the community was not given the ability to make its own informed assessment of their merits. 

And the Liberals are no better. They are equally responsible for the electoral funding debacle. And their Fisherman’s Bend rezoning was disastrous and corrupt - and remains unfixed after 12 years of Labor pushing paperwork around without any funding to make it actually happen.

Major parties can no longer be trusted to establish and follow due process to allow for informed decision-making. 

If elected, I will push for:-

• • Openness and Transparency as a base standard for government in Victoria
  • A Parliamentary Ethics Committee
  • Mandatory independent assessment of major projects as a condition of approval
  • Increased funding for IBAC, the Police, and FOI programs to allow them to effectively undertake their duties.

In Victoria, small businesses make up 98% of all business and account for half of the private sector jobs in Victoria. Supporting small business supports the Victorian economy. We need to prioritise local business and provide greater opportunities out of the pandemic.

Over the last 11 years I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with and advocate for many amazing small businesses. I will:

• Work in Parliament towards cutting through bureaucratic red tape and excessive regulation surrounding the burden small businesses face in the current economic climate.
• Greater consultation with small business before introducing any policies that directly affect them.
• Create a greater awareness and marketing to promote the schemes available through Jobs Victoria for small businesses and entrepreneurs to navigate the tough economic circumstances we are currently facing.

 

We’ve seen the impacts of the pandemic on our healthcare system here in Victoria. I will work with all levels of government to invest in the health of Victoria, lobbying to:

• Prioritise community-based mental health services which will encompass specific outpatient treatment services and continuing care services designed to meet the needs of our community.
• Address the challenges present in current waitlist management in Victoria and backlog due to suspended elective surgeries during the pandemic.
• Support strategies to mitigate staffing shortages, investing in training healthcare workers and bolster healthcare recruitment.

Albert Park Reserve is Australia’s most famous park, Victora’s biggest community sports precinct, and a vital and much-loved resource for local residents and wildlife. But it’s heavily used, in poor condition – and it gets smashed every year by the Grand Prix. 

The Liberals dumped the GP in Albert Park without a word of consultation, promising “it won’t cost Victorians a dollar”. Now, decades later, Labor keeps throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at it, with barely a penny for anything else in the Park – and they’re still ignoring the locals. 

The GP needs to ‘pay the rent’. It’s exciting for some. But it’s a pain for Park users and local residents. Few local businesses get any benefit. The GP would be better – and far less costly – in a new permanent home somewhere else. If the ‘’secret contract’’ won’t allow that before 2037, then the State Government MUST limit the growth and impact of the event. And it MUST INVEST MORE to protect the Park from the damage caused by the GP – and to meet the increasing demand for access to much needed recreation, environmental and sporting facilities as inner Melbourne’s population grows.

Victorian taxpayers pay the GP’s huge bills – but we can’t be trusted to be told what’s actually in the ‘’secret contract’’ Dan Andrews signed with the foreign owners of the GP. What other costly promises will they reveal in future? And why do the 5 per cent of Park users who go to the GP get 95 per cent of the money spent only on them?

I’ll fight for a fairer funding allocation that protects and enhances this jewel – OUR jewel - and benefits ALL Park users - not just the 5 per cent of them who go to the GP. 

Hi, I'm Georgie 

My name is Georgie Dragwidge, and I am your independent candidate for Albert Park this November.

I am a single mother of 18-year-old twins, and a local business owner, having run two successful businesses in the South Melbourne Market over the past 15 years. I hold my family connections close to my heart and credit my upbringing by Greek immigrant parents with why I am a hardworking and grounded person today.

I have experienced the hard work and commitment of the people of Albert Park and, like many, have been left frustrated by the inability or unwillingness of those in power to listen to the electorate and effect real change.

We need politicians who effectively represent our community with no games and no party politics. We need a local representative who will advocate for the needs and interests of this community.

I want to bring my real-life experiences into politics and make it more accessible to all. My working life so far has been spent with and amongst ordinary Victorians. I feel and see the concerns of those around me. I can address these concerns as your representative as I am truly independent. I do not live in a political bubble and am not answerable to backroom officials, lobbyists, donors, or powerbrokers.

I have served the Albert Park community for 15 years. Now, I would like to do so as your local MP.

Together, we can do this.

My main policy priorities are to:

• Ensure all members of our community feel safe in their homes and on the streets, by planning and funding police, justice and welfare services
• Give small businesses a greater voice in relevant policy making and create greater awareness of the programs already in place to develop and support small businesses.
• Fight for greater transparency and integrity in Victorian politics, with properly funded anti-corruption bodies, and an unceasing focus on the welfare of Victorians, not just tired two-party politicking. I pledge to consult with the people of my electorate on all major parliamentary issues, and to be guided by your interests and aspirations.

Advocate for the environment and climate action – globally through the shift to renewable energy and electrification – and locally by protecting and enhancing Albert Park’s natural beauty, including Albert Park Reserve and our many other parks, our beaches and bay.

he electorate of Albert Park is the home of the Arts in Melbourne. It boasts: -

• The remarkable Arts Precinct around Southbank
• The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), soon returning to South Melbourne
• Innovative local theatre and performance like Theatreworks, the National Theatre, Gasworks, and the Palais precincts
• Vibrant street and online cultures of music, art, writing and performance

This presence and influence of the Arts and creative industries is unique, and one of Albert Park’s gifts to Victoria and the nation. And within the electorate they generate much of the colour, ideas and energy that we have come to know and love.

BUT – artists and organisations are doing it tough. In uncertain times and economic headwinds, unless we nurture artistic talent, it will wither – or move away.

If elected, I will fight to ensure the State Government puts in place the strategies and funding needed to sustain and grow our creative communities, and strengthen partnerships with other levels of Government to ensure coordinated and efficient support for the Arts in Albert Park.