General News
10 November, 2026
Candidates straight off the Ripon ballot speak on Central Goldfields issues
Deb Bennett and Niamh Sutton | More than one hundred community members gathered at the Maryborough Highland Society on Saturday afternoon for a political forum addressing Ripon residents’ issues of concern in the upcoming state election.
Hosted by the Maryborough District Advertiser and moderated by Dr Janice Simpson, six candidates were invited to attend the forum. Five candidates took to the stage — current sitting member Martha Haylett (ALP), Tim Drylie from the Greens, One Nation candidate Donna Buxton, the Nationals’ Jo Armstrong and Megan Read representing the Liberal party.
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers’ candidate for Ripon, Krzysztof Wojtkowski, did not respond to the invitation.
The names of a number of independent and minor party candidates will appear on the ballot this month. After lengthy conversations with some of these candidates, and given the time constraints of the event, forum organisers restricted speakers to those whose parties had polled strongly at the last state election as well as those who, current polls suggest, might be elected or hold balance-of-power in the state parliament.
All candidates were invited to attend the event and given the opportunity to ask questions from the floor.
In her opening remarks, Dr Simpson highlighted the importance of local journalism in our system of politics.
“The media’s job is not to repeat political promises uncritically,” Dr Simpson said.
“It is to ask questions, examine claims and help voters make informed choices. Candidates are entitled to put their case. Voters are entitled to clear answers.
“We are interested in answers, not slogans.”
After picking a scrabble letter to determine the speaking order, candidates were given three minutes to make an opening statement before answering a series of questions compiled from reader submissions to the Addy.
Questions covered a range of issues relevant to residents in the central goldfields, from the importance of volunteering, addressing family violence, education, planning laws, the Local Government Act and natural disaster mitigation.
To start off with, how would the new member for Ripon support local volunteers?
Ms Haylett acknowledged the work of Maryborough’s volunteers and the grants allocated throughout her term in government. She pledged to support local volunteer organisations and NFPs to regain pre-covid participation.
Ms Armstrong said volunteering was fundamental in “small and mighty” communities, and spoke on greater support by removing the “red tape” burden.
“It’s an onerous task that takes many, many hours away from many valuable organisations providing such valuable service,” she said.
Ms Buxton and Ms Read agreed compliance and regulatory assessments done to ensure volunteer work is safe “needs examination” so “time and energy” within the community and at events wasn’t absorbed by working “from the computer”.
Mr Drylie said volunteering was “exhausting work, but incredibly important” adding the government needs to “step up” and fill the void with “proper resourcing”.
Next question, regarding the Local Government Act 2020. What changes would each candidate make to the Act to improve accountability and the financial sustainability of small, rural shires?
Ms Haylett was aware of the changes made in recent years regarding the powers of those in local government, but there was “more to do.”
She said rural councils need extra support because they don’t have as many ratepayers.
Ms Armstrong spoke to her record as a councillor and mayor, which saw a net zero rise of rate in budget.
“With the right strategy, you can actually apply an effective result and great outcomes for you community,” she said.
“It can be done in a small rural shire.”
Mr Drylie, also a councillor, said change was needed around the response of the state government.
Moving on to changes they would want to planning laws and the role of VCAT in planning decision.
Ms Haylett cited planning as a “complicated beast” and said the state government has set targets for more resident growth despite it being “near impossible” to get a home in Maryborough.
“Those changes were made to get that moving and get more development going … we have more social housing being built, especially for victim survivors of family violence … but we have more worker housing coming up,” she said.
However, Ms Armstrong said many decisions had been taken away from local government, and these targets were a “race” for councils to achieve.
“I don’t condone it. The Nationals don’t condone it and a Liberal-National coalition government will not condone it,” she said.
She wanted careful consideration and said VCAT right of appeal would be reinstated.
Mr Drylie said some of the changes to legislation leave out community response.
“I know there’s a housing crisis, but we need to be doing it in better ways, make sure the housing we are building is appropriately designed and built,” he said.
Mr Drylie said if the Greens were to get in, there would be policy on taxing big developers.
Ms Buxton spoke on difficulties getting workers into a community if there was no where for them to live.
“We’re all about speeding up the planning process for new houses … we are also very big on releasing unused government land that’s just sitting there with no purpose. We’re all for opening that up for housing as well.”
Ms Read noted the Liberal Party would “water down” planning amendment laws brought in earlier this year for those who oppose projects.
The topic progressed to domestic and family violence. The central goldfields reports a rate of family violence incidents around twice the state average. Each candidate discussed specific actions they would take to support victim survivors and reduce the rate.
Ms Read said the Liberal Party had a 13 point plan to tackle family violence, and would introduce more police powers by bringing in Clare’s Law, ensuring women can do background checks on potential partners.
“That removes confidentiality if there is a criminal record,” she said.
Ms Armstrong agreed.
Ms Haylett said prevention was fundamental. Citing progress that has been made during her term, including supporting victim survivors, the inception of the Orange Door network, work in schools to give families extra support and prevention.
Both she and Ms Armstrong agreed much work has been done to report incidents, heightening statistics in the region, but she said more needs to be done toward prevention.
Ms Buxton said easier access to crisis services was needed and the process “simplified’’.
Mr Drylie added men need to be accountable. He agreed with more front-line services, but said they are “stretched to their limit”.
“We need to guarantee funding and a long-term plan to do it. But we also need to build better public housing so women can escape bad situations,” he said.
Investment for programs and the maintenence of existing infrastructure throughout the central goldfields, was the next topic explored. Each candidate touched on how they would support this.
Ms Read, Ms Buxton and Ms Armstrong cited the Maryborough Outdoor Pool, Princes Park Grandstand and The Nest.
“[Go Goldfields had an] award- winning program supported by the community and young families … that would be something else I would advocate for,” Ms Read said
She said in the first 100 days of government, those projects would be “locked in”.
Since Ms Haylett had been elected, the region has seen some of “the highest amount of infrastructure spending” including several sporting grounds.
Maryborough Education Centre will receive “a huge upgrade’’. If she is re-elected, the SES will receive a new unit and Maryborough will see more train services.
Mr Drylie said all projects mentioned were “important in their own way” and spoke on supporting community projects including sewerage in Talbot and housing resilience.
Candidates were asked how they would improve access and affordability to childcare.
All candidates discussed the increasing need for childcare as cost of living pressures mean families need a dual income.
Ms Read said community consultation was needed to see where centres are required.
Ms Buxton and Ms Armstrong agreed.
“What ever the need is in Maryborough, it’s not going to be the same as Dunolly, Talbot or Carisbrook,” she said.
Throughout Ms Haylett’s term, the electorate has seen new childcare centres for Clunes and Avoca. During that time, the Labor government made three and four year old kinder free, but more “childcare deserts” need to be addressed.
Mr Drylie said the Greens will continue to advocate for public childcare.
“We take it back, we fund it, and we put it where it needs to go,” he said.
Next, candidates spoke on the years after childcare — school.
Ms Haylett was proud of upgrades at Carisbrook and Talbot primary schools, and spoke on her support of breakfast programs, doctors and mental health workers in schools.
Ms Read said focus should be put back onto curriculum, and “admin and paper work” to be taken away from teachers.
Ms Buxton agreed schools should go “back to the basics” in curriculum, but added One Nation was “big on trade schools”.
Ms Armstrong did not want regional kids to be left behind, wanting 90 percent of students to receive high proficiency scores in NAPLAN literacy and numeracy.
She said the schools tax would be “scrapped” to keep fees at non-government schools down.
However, Mr Drylie supported “fully funding schools” to alleviate costs for parents.
He said students with special needs would be supported and curriculums such as music and art would be fully funded.
All candidates agreed energy should be more affordable.
However, all but Mr Drylie stated their opposition to the proposed Western Renewables Link and VNI West.
Ms Haylett said the project “does not currently have social licence” and will continue fighting both proposals in her party.
Ms Read and Ms Armstrong said under their government, residents will be able to cook with gas again.
Ms Buxton said One Nation is against VNI West, the Western renewables Link and Net Zero.
Mr Drylie said the Greens support community owned energy citing it as the “only real option we have”.
While his response that gas was running out was met with disagreement from some of the audience, he said there are abundant resources in the sun, and a “fair community process” is needed.
“It doesn’t send us an invoice,” he said.
The final topic was natural disasters.
Ms Haylett said communities including Maryborough, Dunolly and Carisbrook “become islands” during floods and Maryborough SES will benefit from an upgraded space where they can store a boat.
Ms Read said natural disasters were a reality, but prevention and response were vital. She and Ms Armstrong said their parties would follow recommendations from the inquiries into the 2026 summer fires made earlier this year.
Ms Buxton said discussions with community members who have experienced natural disasters are needed, and prevention and management are key to support impacted or at risk communities.
Mr Drylie said more support was needed for resilience.
“We need funds to adapt so our communities can better resist,” he said.
All candidates remarked on the variety and scope of the reader questions, which they agreed reflected the community’s engagement in political issues.
This sentiment continued with questions from the floor. Audience members were invited to direct their questions to one or two candidates; again the topics raised covered a wide variety of concerns.
There was some angst expressed by independent candidate Trevor Andrei at not being invited to join the panel on stage. When given the microphone, he wished himself a happy birthday and attempted to interview others in the room.
Question time was extended by 15 minutes to enable most of the questioners to be heard. Dr Simpson acknowledged that not everyone would be happy with the forum, but stated that overall, the event had been respectful and informative.
“Whatever your political views, please take the time to consider the candidates’ answers, examine their policies and make your vote an informed one,” she said.
For coverage on the questions put to candidates from audience members, see this Friday’s edition.