FOR the second federal election in a row, Mornington Peninsula Shire is publishing a “pledge tracker” on its website to inform resident of the “commitments made by candidates”.
The tracker attracted criticism last federal election for being “blatantly unfair” with financial pledges only possible by candidates from the two major parties (Shire accused of being off track with pledges, The News 17/5/22). A “pledge” is a commitment by the candidate’s party to fund the pledged project in a future budget and only deliverable if that party wins government. The tracker currently lists Liberal candidate Zoe McKenzie, Labor candidate Sarah Race and independent candidate Ben Smith, as well as One Nation and the Greens.
In the 2022 federal election, Liberal McKenzie was listed on the shire’s pledge tracker as having pledged over $28m in projects that would be delivered on the peninsula by a re-elected Morrison government. The Labor candidate, Surbhi Snowball had a solitary pledge for $500,000 for a community battery in Flinders.
To the casual observer of the shire’s “pledge tracker”, there would be no doubt which vote would make them better off. Of course, Morrsion did not get re-elected in 2022, and the $28m in pledges from McKenzie could not be fulfilled. Labor’s Snowball would drift into the annals of history, but her pledge for $500,000 for a community battery in Flinders would come to fruition with the launch of the Flinders community battery on 29 October 2024.
This election cycle, there have been complaints that some items are being excluded from the “pledge” tracker. One of Race’s big ticket commitments was the announcement of a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Somerville that would provide bulk billed care for urgent but non-life-threatening conditions, seven days a week, for extended hours, and with no appointment needed. The announcement was part of a broader $644m commitment to open 50 of these clinics across the country, but as there isn’t a dollar breakdown specifically for the Somerville clinic, it has not been included on the pledge tracker for Labor.
The tracker also leaves all candidates other than from the two main parties unable to participate in the process. Although Smith is listed alongside McKenzie and Race on the tracker (along with One Nation and the Greens), Smith is unable to speak to party bosses and get commitments from them that a “pledge” will be placed in a future budget.
In the 2022 federal election, the tracker was criticised by Marg D’Arcy, campaign manager for Labor candidate Snowball, as “blatantly unfair”. “This exercise is misleading and unfair to other candidates by only focusing on pledges and not talking about policies and the impact they may have on the people on the peninsula,” D’Arcy said at the time. “It ignores policies of the candidates, many of which will be of considerable benefit to the electorate.”
First published in the Mornington News – 22 April 2025
