Lydia Senior, ALP Federal Candidate for Mallee I am back home from the last of 4 candidate debates in Horsham

and I have reflected on the performance of the major party individuals. All debates turned out to be Q&A sessions rather than debates and audiences were largely farmers with heavy sprinklings of VFF people asking questions to their boy. There were some community people from other backgrounds but not many. My concern is that whilst Agriculture is extremely important to our region it is not the only priority. Issues such as health, aged care, indigenous closing the gap, public housing, childcare, disability care, research, the economy, medical education, universities, TAFES, rail, climate change, drugs and alcohol, refugees, mental illness, and many other issues where barely touched on. Not surprising in one sense as the Coalition has no policies costed that they are willing to share until probably the night before the election. We now have 3 days before the electorate vote for the person who will represent the Mallee in the federal Parliament and my concern is that a one dimensional VFF official is not the person for the job. Nice person, but one dimensional. To support what I am saying I have just heard Warren Truss on TV saying "to be successful you just have to be ahead one day every three years and that is all that matters" Whilst I have not been handpicked from a political party as their golden girl, I do have grass roots experience across all of the above sectors and I have the ability to represent and advocate for people. My aim is to make the Mallee a marginal seat, if we do not achieve this on Saturday 7 September it might be many more years if not decades before we get the chance again. I therefore I ask you to give me your first preference vote by entering number 1 against my name, which is lucky last on the ballot paper. You may have noticed I have not been able to market my campaign as well as the Liberal and National Party, this is not about capability it is about finance a lack of funds only, hence why such a long FB message. Thank you Lydia