www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 800 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2013
Candidate breaks ranks on asylum seeker policy
Bonnie day for the bairns
HOME TRUTH
THE pipes will be skirling and the sporran and dirks will be out aplenty when the Scots Day Out takes over Rosalind Park tomorrow. Story Page 4
By ANTHONY RADFORD
GLANVILLE Page 12
SUNDOWN: Golden City Pipe Band Pipe Major Brendan Leach. Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
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Mental health in turmoil - Page 3
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FEDERAL Labor candidate for Bendigo Lisa Chesters has broken ranks with the government on what is expected to be one of the biggest issues in the September federal election. Speaking exclusively to the Bendigo Weekly, Ms Chesters said she disagreed with the Federal Government’s policy of processing asylum seekers off-shore. “What I support is that if people come to Australia, they should be processed on-shore,” she said. “That is what I believe as an individual, and if I was elected then I would be going to the Labor caucus and arguing for that position. “For the record, I am with (human rights lawyer) Julian Burnside on this one. “I actually believe that if people get to this country we should support them in any way we can.” Ms Chesters’ stance is expected to play well in the Bendigo electorate. Refugee policy is not the hot-button issue in Bendigo it is federally, with a large refugee-sympathetic population in the city. “In some of our community, they
are very supportive of asylum seekers,” Ms Chesters said. “When it comes to the broader community, it is a bit of a distraction to what people actually want to talk about, and that is how to build a stronger, bigger Bendigo.” Ms Chesters’ comments were made during a video interview, available online at www.bendigoweekly.com.au. Liberal Party candidate Greg Bickley was also interviewed. Ms Chesters also took aim at Liberal Party advertising that focused on Mr Bickley as a “real” local. Before recently moving to Flora Hill, Ms Chesters lived in Kyneton. She said a lot of Bendigonians were not born in the city, and an increasing number were moving from other regional and metropolitan centres. “If you can’t run for parliament because you are not fourth generation Bendigo, what happens next, you can’t vote?,” she said. “It’s wedge politics that I think is quite nasty, in saying there is (an) us and them.
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Staff blamed for voting glitch - Page 5