What’s all this about? The big issue
Mandurah Mail’s editor Kate Hedley put her finger on the pulse and identified youth mental health as the biggest issue facing Mandurah and the Peel region, both areas falling in the federal electorate of Canning.
“The Peel region has been plagued by a spate of youth suicides,” she wrote in the Mandurah Mail’s Federal Election Letter.
“It has crippled our community, mostly because there simply are not enough resources in the region to cope with the number of teenagers needing help.”
Canning MP Andrew Hastie responded to the challenge with the announcement of $2 million for the Peel Youth Medical Centre health hub.
Labor’s Barry Winmar said his party was targeting a 50 per cent reduction in the suicide rate.
The Canning candidates
Five candidates are contesting the federal election in the seat of Canning.
Incumbent MP Andrew Hastie said he would run on his record since winning the byelection last year.
Labor’s candidate Barry Winmar said his campaign would focus on opposing business tax cuts and cuts to health.
The Greens’ Aeron Blundell-Cambden said he hoped to be an alternative to “dumb and dumber politics”.
All candidates responded to the Mandurah Mail’s candidate questionnaire.
Canning controversy
Mr Hastie made national news when the army ordered him to take down campaign posters which included photos of him wearing a uniform. He refused and Defence took him off the “standby reserve” database.
He again hit front pages around the country when he had an artist paint a mural of himself sporting a handlebar moustache and a mullet over graffiti on one of his billboards. The council was not amused.
Mr Winmar courted controversy when he disappeared from the campaign trail, not answering questions from journalists. He reappeared campaigning in Pinjarra with Labor senator Pat Dodson.
Greens’ candidate Aeron Blundell-Cambden attracted criticism from other candidates when he linked the massacre in a gay nightclub in Orlando to gay marriage and the controversial Safe Schools program.
Where to vote
Here’s our list of polling booths where you can score a sausage sizzle, a bacon and egg burger or a cake stall on election day.
Our list of polling booths in the electorate of Canning can be found here.
If you’re a little more north, the Australian Electoral Commission has a list of all the polling places for the electorate of Brand.
On the day
Follow us on Facebook for updates during the day.
Make sure you send pics for us to share of anything that takes your fancy (especially sausage sizzles).
Happy voting, Mandurah!
Nathan Hondros
Senior Journalist for the Mandurah Mail, Australian Community Media, and Fairfax Media.
Senior Journalist for the Mandurah Mail, Australian Community Media, and Fairfax Media.
