Member for Indi Helen Haines will "pay it forward" to a number of newly elected federal independent members on Wednesday, when they visit her Wangaratta office.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dr Haines revealed the visit when speaking to the media after the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) officially declared her the successful candidate for the seat of Indi.
Dr Haines said the member for Kooyong Monique Ryan, member for Goldstein Zoe Daniel and member for Curtin Kate Chaney, all independents, and some of their staffers, would visit.
"I'm assisting them in how to set up an office, all of those things you have to do when you're a new member of parliament," she said.
IN OTHER NEWS:
"I was fortunate enough to have Cathy to mentor me as a new member of parliament so I'm paying it forward.
"It's really about the fundamentals of how to switch on the computers, how to process constituent inquiry, when you're an independent you don't have a party there doing all your work for you, so you need to figure it all out for yourself.
"I had a very steep learning curve of course when I came to be the member for Indi in 2019 and I want to assist in any way I can and those three members have said 'yes, please, we'd love to have some assistance'."
Dr Haines said she'd called all of the newly elected independent federal members to congratulate them.
"We've now got a huge cross bench, the biggest crossbench in Australian federal history, so it's going to be a whole new way of doing politics in the house of representatives," she said.
"It's very exciting, we're already talking to the new government about how that will work operationally."
Dr Haines beat the Liberal candidate for Indi Ross Lyman by about 11,000 first preference votes, with a total of 41,080 and 30,871 first preference votes respectively.
National Party candidate Liz Fisher received 3849 first preference votes, One Nation candidate Beth Stevens received 5315 first preference votes and Labour candidate Nadia David received 8651 first preference votes.
Dr Haines has just returned from a short break, but said she has already written to the ministers for health, aged care, energy and agriculture to invite them to the region and advocate for her constituents.
Parliament will resume in the last week of July.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark https://www.bordermail.com.au/
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter: @bordermail
- Follow us on Instagram @bordermail
- Follow us on Google News.
Victoria Ellis
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
