{"id":40600,"date":"2019-03-14T14:59:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T03:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=40600"},"modified":"2022-05-02T12:26:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T02:26:42","slug":"reports-of-maryboroughs-death-have-been-greatly-exaggerated-on-the-campaign-trail-with-malleeray-malleevotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/reports-of-maryboroughs-death-have-been-greatly-exaggerated-on-the-campaign-trail-with-malleeray-malleevotes\/","title":{"rendered":"Reports of Maryborough’s death have been greatly exaggerated: @Davelennonabc on the #malleevotes trail with @malleeray"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Maryborough’s Fire Tower. Fire spotting is one of many jobs that are no longer required.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Democracy is a funny thing. These days few would argue against the concept of one vote, one value. The age of the gerrymander is over, in Australia anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in order to keep things straight the Australian Electoral Commission periodically reviews the boundaries of seats that get outside the margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All well and good: democracy, fairness and good governance have been served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about Maryborough?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This town’s relationship with Mark Twain goes beyond my paraphrasing him in the headline. During his 1895 visit, the American writer described it as “… a railway station, with town attached”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a fair call: the station is actually one of the rejected designs for Southern Cross Station in Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, however, this picturesque town in the Victorian goldfields finds itself railroaded into its third federal electorate in nine years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010 it was in the seat of Bendigo, then in 2013 and 2016 in Wannon. Now it\u2019s in Mallee and a five-hour drive from the electorate\u2019s permanent federal government office in Mildura. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fair to say the people of Maryborough are miffed. But wait, there’s more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council has been sacked and administrators appointed<\/a>, the former long-term CEO has been convicted of misuse of a corporate credit card, and other offences<\/a> AND the state MP is having her election result challenged in the Court of Disputed Returns<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Household income is the lowest in Victoria, the unemployment rate among the highest in the state and the town has the highest state percentage of people delaying medical consultations or purchasing prescribed medicine. (Source: Central Goldfields (S) Profile Vic Health<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a pretty picture, on the face of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@MalleeRay visits<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Ray Kingston (@malleeray<\/a>) recently met with some voters in Maryborough who raised their issues of most concern.
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Considering the huge electorate and recognizing some key local tweaks, the themes are surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) similar and almost uniformly symbolic of rural and regional neglect. #malleevotes<\/a> 1\/2<\/p>— Ray Kingston: The Independent Voice for Mallee (@MalleeRay) March 12, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>