Liberal candidate in Aston launches campaign on local issues

The Liberal party have launched their campaign to retain the crucial seat of Aston in Melbourne’s outer-eastern suburbs.

Peter Dutton with Roshena Campbell on Wednesday.

Peter Dutton and his just-selected Aston candidate Roshena Campbell have launched the campaign to retain the crucial Melbourne seat in a by-election in six weeks, saying it will be fought on local issues including infrastructure and cost of living.

After greeting locals at the Wantirna South Reserve on Wednesday, Ms Campbell – who does not live in the marginal electorate but said she would move there imminently – said she was not an outsider to the outer-­eastern suburban seat, highlighting her previous work repre­sent­ing small businesses in the area.

“When the stakes were high, they wanted me to be their champion. It’s my job now to be a champion for every voter in Aston, every family, every small business,” she said.

“I'm not taking this seat for granted. And I do want to make the point that cost of living is hitting hard … with 41 per cent of the people here having mortgages, (and) a number of young families and other numbers of people coming off fixed interest rates.

“As a mother of three kids, I know all of our grocery bills are going up, energy prices are going up in Aston by $890 to $990 a year.”

The career barrister also said Anthony Albanese “scrapped” critical infrastructure projects in the seat, including road upgrades, that she will seek to put back on the table if successful.

The by-election was prompted by the resignation of Alan Tudge, who held on to Aston despite suffering a drop in his margin from 10.8 per cent to 2.8 per cent.

The Opposition Leader insisted the administration committee’s decision to pick Ms Campbell instead of allowing branch membership to vote on a candidate was appropriate given pre-polling would open in three weeks before the by-election is held on April 1.

“I have always been in favour of the democratic processes in our party. That includes, in extremis, the ability for the administrative committee to make a decision in consultation with as many local members as possible,” he said.

“We did that and we have come up with an amazing candidate who I think is already highly respected by the membership here.

“It’s clear, the fact that (the Albanese government) rushed the by-election, they want to get it over and done with before the May budget, which is going to contain a walk away from the tax cuts, a hit on your superannuation and further taxes that we're not yet fully aware of, but that I have no doubt are coming in the May budget.”

Ms Campbell declared herself to be “on the conservative side of politics” when asked about where she stood on issues such as climate change and gender equality.