‘Hawthorn’s climate has changed’: Candidates make climate policy pitches at town hall forum

The candidates in the state seat of Hawthorn have made impassioned promises to hundreds of voters on what they would do to tackle climate change if elected on November 26.

Between 300 and 400 residents from the electorate attended a forum at the Hawthorn Arts Centre on Wednesday night, at the biggest public candidates event that will be held in the ultra-marginal seat before election day.

They came to see Labor MP John Kennedy, Liberal candidate and the former MP for the seat John Pesutto, teal independent Melissa Lowe and Greens candidate Nick Savage make their pitches on what action they would take on climate change.

The Hawthorn Arts Centre was close to full on Wednesday night for the forum.Credit: Eddie Jim

The event was staged by community group Lighter Footprints, which has run candidate forums in the area for more than a decade.

Its most recent event in April took on national prominence when, having attended its previous forums, then federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg declined to appear alongside Ryan and candidates from Labor and the Greens. At the time, Frydenberg likened the public event to one of his opponent Monique Ryan’s political rallies.

On Wednesday night, Kennedy opened proceedings by noting to the crowd that Sportsbet had him at odds of five to one now – significantly better than his 100-to-one odds at the 2018 election.

“It’s fair to say Hawthorn’s climate has changed,” he told the hall to laughter. (Federal MP Ryan’s campaign tagline during her successful tilt at the federal seat that covers the area was “Kooyong’s climate is changing”. The state seat of Hawthorn sits entirely within Kooyong.)

Labor MP for Hawthorn John Kennedy before heading into the forum.Credit: Eddie Jim

Kennedy said the policies of the Andrews government would soon make Victoria “one of the fastest decarbonising jurisdictions in the world” and that state Labor was “transitioning away from fossil fuels with the same conviction that we remove level crossings”.

He implored voters to cast their ballot in his favour because climate change required “decisive action – action only a government can make. Decisions are not made on the crossbench, they are made in the government caucus and the cabinet room”.

To applause from the crowd, Kennedy noted the Andrews government had banned gas fracking. He pointed to the construction of “the largest batteries in the southern hemisphere, and we’re going to build many more”.

And he said the government’s offshore wind farm would power 1.5 million homes by 2032. The logging of native forest in Victoria came up repeatedly at the forum, and Kennedy said Labor would end it “by 2030 with a major reduction by 2024”.

Melissa Lowe, the independent candidate for the seat of Hawthorn, addresses the crowd.Credit: Eddie Jim

Teal candidate Lowe called on voters “to hold the government to account” by voting her in as an independent to represent the area, saying that this would be “a new hope for Hawthorn”.

Lowe said a lack of action on climate change and corruption were “the greatest threats to the long-term prosperity and wellbeing of our community”, and that the Liberal Party “continues to drag its feet on climate action”.

Lowe said the federal success of independents “has done more to progress Australia towards climate action than any other event. This is incredibly empowering.”

Calling for more investment in wind and solar, Lowe said there should be no “drilling for gas near the Twelve Apostles”.

“We should be investing in electric vehicles, not taxing them. We should be phasing out fossil fuels, not mining for more of them. We should be electrifying our homes, not expanding the use of gas.”

And Lowe said Labor had not performed well on ending logging of native forests. “We should be ending native forest logging, not subsidising it,” she said.

“If we keep voting for parties who won’t listen to the community or the experts, then we will not see ambitious action on climate change.”

Liberal candidate Pesutto began his speech to laughter after vowing to “not go on TV on election night ever again”. Pesutto famously lost his seat live on air while a guest on ABC TV’s election night panel.

Pesutto said the move away from energy systems that damaged the environment represented “probably the most important transition we are going to make in human history”.

Pitching himself firmly as among the future leadership team of the Victorian Liberal Party – Pesutto has often been touted as a future party leader – he said: “we need people across the political divide who are united in this journey and who can bring communities with us”.

John Pesutto, Liberal candidate for Hawthorn, addresses the crowd.Credit: Eddie Jim

Pesutto said the challenge Victoria and Australia face in tackling climate change “gets harder from here, not easier. Transmission infrastructure that communities have to host [and] the generation assets that we have to build, the systems we have to put in place are enormous. The dollars attached are enormous.”

Pesutto said if elected again as the MP for Hawthorn he would “be an ambassador for that journey to make sure that we take communities with us”.

He pointed to Liberal Party policy, which commits to legislating a 50 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030. “That for me is a minimum.”

He also said more work was needed on batteries for homes. “Rooftop [solar] software going in isn’t accompanied by batteries, and we need to get batteries into homes,” he said, highlighting the Liberal policy of $1400 rebates for solar panels and $3000 for home batteries.

He said the Liberals would pause Labor’s electric vehicle tax for four years if the Coalition won office.

Greens candidate for Hawthorn Nick Savage addresses the crowd at the forum.Credit: Eddie Jim

Greens candidate Savage, a 25-year-old running for public office for the first time, said that the success of teal and Greens candidates at the federal election highlighted the desire for change on climate change in particular in Australia.

“It showed us that there was no such thing as a safe seat, only complacent politicians,” Savage said.

He said that climate activists in recent years had “forced the hand of the establishment and it’s my personal belief that this is just the beginning”.

This story is part of our in-depth local coverage of the key seats of Hawthorn, Melton and Richmond at the November state election.

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