By Bridget Brady
BOB Halsall is claiming a victorious election result for the Make The State Pay group, despite receiving less than 800 votes at the polls.
Mr Halsall and two other candidates in Casey ran as Independents at the State Election as part of the Make The State Pay group, which was driven to tackle the methane gas financial blow-out.
They racked up about 790 primary votes between them, with Bob Halsall the most successful in Cranbourne, followed by Angela Dunleavy in Narre Warren South and Taimour Hassan in the seat of Narre Warren North.
Mr Halsall said he was thrilled the group persuaded almost 800 people not to vote for one of the major parties on the basis of a single issue, proving local issues bite.
“The people who live in the area recognised that the issue we ran on was important enough to change what are normally the voting habits of a lifetime,” Mr Halsall said.
“To me, that’s a real victory.”
The mission of the Make The State Pay group was to put pressure on the state to contribute to the clean-up costs associated with the Brookland Greens debacle, and save what Mr Halsall said was an unfair financial burden on Casey ratepayers.
As it turns out the group may get what they wished for, with the Coalition during the election campaign promising to give $24 million to Casey Council to help ease the pain.
“It’s not everything I wanted but I think without the campaign it wouldn’t have happened,” Mr Halsall said.
“I think every ratepayer can have a little sigh of relief over the fact it’s going to be a little bit easier.”
Mr Halsall said he hoped Casey council would continue to lobby a Coalition Government for money in the future.
