By Violet Li
Libertarian candidate Christine Skrobo is driven to bring Casey back to basics, bring down the rates, and maximise community engagement.
The Narre Warren South resident in her early 20s has announced her intention to run for Kowan Ward in the coming Casey Council election.
“I want to see Casey really focusing on delivering those core essential services and doing them well and just sticking to them,” she said.
“They need to be fixing the roads, maintaining the footpaths, collecting the rubbish, getting all those basic things right.
“And then, we need to be looking at where is Casey wasting money. Where are they putting money that’s not towards local matters that the residents don’t really care about?
“We need to be cutting that down, looking for waste, looking for inefficiencies, and we need to try and bring down the rates.”
Having lived in Casey for her whole life, Ms Skrobo said she would love to buy a house to continue living here when she was ready, but she felt out of reach with how unaffordable the area had become.
“I’ve grown up here, went to school here, worked here. I’m just passionate about our community, and I want to see things get better and change,” she said.
“I think the increasingly high rates are another barrier for young people, so I want to get in and fight for some change there. And across the board, it’s affecting everyone.
“People are already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis from other areas. I think rates are another thing that they don’t need that extra stress every year.”
Speaking of maximising community engagement, Ms Skrobo believed one of the keys was to deliver better monthly meetings.
“I think currently they’re run quite poorly. The first thing that I think is wrong with them is the time that they’re held up. Right now, they’re held during business hours,” she said.
“This is something that our surrounding councils don’t do. They hold them at appropriate times when more people can attend. And I’d love to see the time shift for Casey so more people can attend.
“And then there’s the public question time. To me, that’s one of the most important aspects of the meeting because that’s where residents get to directly engage with the council. They get to directly hold them to account.
“I just think now that they don’t even read out the public questions unless the person is in the gallery. That really decreased the transparency and the accountability.”
Being one of the younger demographics in the municipality, Ms Skrobo highlighted she would also try her best to engage the cohort if she was elected.
“I think I’ll try to create a social media presence to talk to young people more, like recording videos to explain things in simple terms,” she said.
“You’re seeing many young people who don’t really know about the council matters or those terms and expertise pretty well, and young people maybe don’t understand the direct impacts that the council matters have on them.”
Ms Skrobo said she had been active in politics ever since she graduated high school. She ran in the 2022 federal election for Bruce and the 2022 state election for Narre Warren South.
“I think running endorsed by the Libertarian party is essentially proof of what I say I’m going to do,” she said.
“It’s proof that I’ll definitely not vote for an increase in rates because that’s something that this party has been known to not support, and I’ll always be looking to cut down wasteful spending.
“I totally understand that people are very skeptical of political parties, particularly the major parties.
“But I am still independent for the people here. I’m ready to listen to them. I’m ready to vocalise their concerns.”
Ms Skrobo is currently studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree.
