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Independent candidate Tracie Lund has declared “mission accomplished” as the battle for the seat of Morwell goes down to the wire.
Polling 11.26 per cent of the primary vote at the time of going to print, Ms Lund said yesterday she believed the “grassroots” campaign run by her and community group Latrobe Valley First, had empowered the public to “speak up”.
“I feel that the community has said ‘we won’t be taken for granted anymore’,” Ms Lund said.
“They’re raising the bar on expectations of members of parliament.”
The Morwell Neighbourhood House coordinator was vocal following the mine fire, circulating a petition calling for a community health study.
Ms Lund said while she believed discontent over the government’s response to the smoke crisis played a part in the election result, the Latrobe Valley had been “neglected, mistreated and ignored over a number of years and a number of governments”.
“We’ve got all sorts of big picture issues here and people are just fed up.”
Ms Lund did not direct preferences to any of her fellow candidates, encouraging her voters to number their ballot paper as they wished.
She said she now looked forward to returning to her work with the Neighbourhood House.
Ms Lund did not rule out standing for election again.
