State $160 billion debt looms as sticking point for Bass candidates

THEY say it’s a three-cornered contest for the highly marginal electorate of Bass in the looming Victorian State election.

But in the absence of one of those corners, Labor’s Chris Buckingham, from Thursday night’s packed VFF ‘Meet the Candidates’ Night’ at the Grantville Hall, it was left to One Nation’s Nikole Schellekens and the Liberals’ Rochelle Halstead to butt heads.

And the main issue, the state’s out-of-control debt of $165 billion, rising by almost $24 million-a-day in extra interest charges alone.

Surely, they can both sheet the blame home to the State Labor Government for the blowout in debt to almost twice what NSW owes per capita, maybe so, but they managed to find fault in the approach taken by each other’s party.

In answer to a question from the floor about how they would contain the state’s ballooning debt, Rochelle Halstead said the Coalition had already identified $24 billion in savings over the next decade, putting a freeze on government back-office hiring, not wasting millions on useless initiatives like the ‘machete bins’ and office plants, among other things.

And directing her comments to the One Nation candidate, Nikole Schellekens, she rejected the criticism that the Coalition was making promises they didn’t know they could afford to keep.

“I reject the idea that you need to look at the books before promising any project funding. The books are already open and while we’ll probably still find a few surprises, you can’t be going to the election without saying what you’re going to do because you haven’t looked at the books yet,” Ms Halstead said,

Offered the right of reply by the moderator for the candidate’s question and answer session, Jarrod Whittaker of the Rural Press Club and ABC Gippsland, Nikole Schellekens stuck to her guns.

“We’ve already got a $160 billion debt and the Liberals have been out there, already running up $9.1 billion in campaign promises. It’s a bit rich to be telling me to do our homework,” said Ms Schellekens.

The One Nation candidate had earlier told the meeting that One Nation wouldn’t be making any promises until they sat down and had a proper audit of the state’s finances and started redirecting money away from waste to the basic programs and services that all Victorians wanted funded.

“We know the books are cooked in this state, so you won't hear a dollar value from me on this,” she said in reference to calls from a farmer in the audience for the retention of Agriculture Victoria extension officers.

“If we didn’t have extension officers, we would need to know what they were needed for and how much it was going to cost,” she said.

The well-attended night, hosted by President of the Bass Coast Branch of the Victorian Farmers Federation Peter Miller and VFF CEO Charlie Thomas, with arrangements by long-time VFF branch official Faye Tuchtan, featured four of the candidates who have so far nominated for the seat; Chris Jobe of the Victorian Socialists, Sophie Thorn of The Greens, Rochelle Halstead of the Liberals and Nikole Schellekens of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party.

Chris Buckingham was an apology for a prior engagement having previously met with members of the local VFF branch.

As explained by Mr Thomas, the VFF had developed a five-point plan for candidates before the election and were staging candidates' nights around the state to gauge members' attitudes to the parties and their candidates, after which they will be publishing a point score on each candidate.

"We're not going to be telling you how to vote just offering some additional information to help you make up your minds," he said.

More to follow.