Final colour piece
When you walk in to Joy Rau’s house, you know instantly that you have walked into a grandmother’s house, from the pictures to the knitting needles.
Sitting in the lounge room was Joy Rau, Dot Drayton and Mary Dawson all grand mothers who have lived through numerous elections.
Dot and Mary both live in Leopold whilst Joy lives in Grovedale all widowed whilst Dot and Mary both receive pensions from the government and Joy is in a self-managed fund.
Sarah Henderson said on her website that “since we were first elected the age pension has increased by $117.80 per fortnight for single pensioners.”
Ms Dawson said “my pension has only increased by a few dollars; I can’t tell you exactly how much but It would not be over $100.”
The current maximum rate that someone on the pension can receive as a single is $843.60 whilst couples combined can receive $1271.80.
Ms Drayton said “I felt like there wasn’t enough discussion about the aged pension, Clive Palmer made outrageous promises whilst no real meaningful discussions were had.”
The Royal commission “was a vital part of our decision making,” taking care of the aged care sector is important to our futures,” said Dot.
The royal commission will explore the care and quality that people receive in aged care and will explore how to aid people with dementia according to the commissioner.
All three ladies said that “we got so much mail and saw so many ads, we got so tired of the election and are happy it is done.”
Mary and Dot both said “I liked Sarah, she had her face around and in a lot of things, we didn’t see much of Libby Coker at all.”
“We felt like the Liberal party at least listened to us, the Labor party didn’t pay attention to the elderly,” she said.
Mary said “My son was praying that the Liberals would win because if the Labor party won he was going to be paying $10,000 in tax.”
Mary, Joy and Dot all said “that law and order was a high priority,” and “that there simply wasn’t enough discussion about safety.”
Libby Coker said, “law and order isn’t so much as a federal issue as it is a state issue, but she would liaise with Lisa Neville.”
Coker said “it’s not all about bricks and mortar but rather a Police presence on the ground,” when asked about law and order on the Bellarine.
Education was one of the key pillars in which the federal election was centred around, with Labor offering more to public schools and the Liberals offering more too private.
Federal funding currently has government schools receiving 36.2% of funding and private schools receiving 63.8% of all federal funding according to productivity commission.
Public schools receive 91.5% of state government funding whilst private schools receive 8.5% of state funding,
Sharon Hogan has taught in public schools for 17 years, as a teacher at Mathew Flinders and as the head of maths at Belmont high school.
“Belmont is lucky with the zone they are in; they also have a big international student program which brings money in,” she said.
“Government schools don’t have the money to go the extra mile for kid’s education, we are in front of the students more than ever,” she said
“Teachers are a lot more stressed now than they used to be, time is the biggest issue with not enough time at work,” she said
Sarah Henderson pledged money to 52 schools in a media release, none of which would go to either Mathew Flinders or Belmont High school.
“Labors policy is that the bulk of funding should go to public schools, with a percentage still going to private schools,” Ms Coker said.
“I will provide and support families to prosper and try to support people of Corangamite with childcare and education,” she said
Ms Hogan said “the funding proposals from the Labor party heavily influenced my decision to vote Labor whilst my husband voted Liberal as it aided his job.”
“Funding can come and you can put it towards a new program for students then a new government is elected and funding is cut,” she said.
Sharon had two twin boys attend St Joseph’s college and one daughter attend Mathew Flinders so she understands the differences between public and private.
“The boys school supplied us with laptops that we could pay off whilst we had to buy our daughters so none of the students matched,” she said.
“Funding should be at least 50 50, it should be balanced, teachers are becoming more and more stressed as they work harder,” she said
Sarah Henderson was approached for this piece but declined to comment.
