Darren Hercus, One Nation
The rising cost of living affects everyone. I support expanding public transport with improved bus services. Our policies help businesses grow, creating jobs and reducing work travel. Our energy plan includes ending government subsidies for large-scale renewable projects and reserving Victorian gas to lower energy costs.
The most efficient approach to the redevelopment of Rosebud Hospital is via a “Public Private Partnership”. This involves collaboration between a private consortium and the state government, with funding privately provided, resulting in an estimated $340m in taxpayer savings.
The Rosebud facility would feature a public hospital, private consulting suites, aged care, childcare, and an aquatic centre, creating a comprehensive medical health precinct.
The state government would operate and maintain the public hospital and its facilities. This approach has successfully been used for other medical centres such as the new Footscray hospital and Frankston hospital redevelopment. Let’s get the hospital built!
I will advocate for more funding for state roads in Nepean and collaborate with the shire for improved maintenance of roads and infrastructure. Together, we will review budgets and council priority projects to achieve the best outcomes.
Our policies aim to address housing availability and affordability by prohibiting foreign ownership. Another proposed policy allows homeowners to rent out one room of their primary residence tax-free, thereby increasing supply and potentially lowering rental prices. One Nation seeks to decrease land tax for investors to support rental property supply. I will advocate for streamline and relax conditions associated with planning permits to facilitate housing construction.
My objective is to serve the people of Nepean with the utmost dedication to help ensure the peninsula remains an amazing place to live.
Reade Smith, Sustainable Australia Party
As a long-time Mornington Peninsula resident, former mayor, and community advocate, I’m standing in the 2026 Nepean by-election because I care deeply about our community and its future.
Over decades of service in local government, policing, and community programs, I’ve listened to residents across Nepean. The message is clear: we need action on affordable housing, protection of our natural environment, and better planning for sustainable living. Too many locals – young people, families, and pensioners – are being priced out of the community they call home. Sustainable Australia Party is committed to delivering “affordable housing now, the sustainable way,” uniquely addressing both supply and demand to create lasting solutions. This includes more social housing, less investor tax breaks and slower migration.
I’m not aligned to the old left-right divides. I believe in practical, evidence-based policies that put our community first – reducing overdevelopment, managing and slowing population growth responsibly, and protecting the Peninsula’s unique environment for future generations.
Having a family and now being a grandfather, I want my children and grandchildren – and yours – to enjoy the same opportunities that earlier generations had: a secure home, a healthy environment, and a strong, connected community.
This by-election is an opportunity to send a message that Nepean deserves better – honest leadership, sustainable planning, and real solutions to the housing crisis.
Remember, you can never waste your number 1 vote on a minor party. If you vote for me and I do not win, your vote flows on to your number 2 selection. Use your preferences to send a message to the well-funded parties and independents that they need to put our quality of life first.
Let’s work together to protect what makes the Mornington Peninsula special and build a fairer, more sustainable future for all.
Sianan Healy, The Greens
Our beautiful coast is what drew me to the Peninsula ten years ago, but the community is what made it home. I’m running because we all deserve a lot better than the politics we’ve been handed.
My husband teaches at a local public school and I work in a women’s health not-for-profit. On weekends, we walk the foreshore, shop at our local markets, and chat with our neighbours who’ve become friends. This place has given us a life we love and a community that shows up for each other.
I’m not a career politician. I’m a local who has listened to our community describe sleepless nights over rent, medical bills they can’t afford, and ambulance trips to Frankston because Rosebud Hospital can’t meet our needs. Nepean has Victoria’s highest rates of homelessness and rental stress, yet homes sit empty most of the year. Meanwhile, our families are priced out of the towns they helped build. This isn’t bad luck, it’s the result of political choices, and those choices can be different.
If elected, I’ll push for a properly funded upgrade of Rosebud as a fully public hospital. I’ll fight for caps on rent increases, a vacancy tax, and real investment in public and genuinely affordable housing, including crisis accommodation on the Southern Peninsula. And I’ll back practical cost-of-living relief by making big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share instead of squeezing households.
The Greens have the power to create change. We’ve already delivered stronger renter protections, cleaner energy investment and funding for safer walking and cycling. Imagine what we can do with Nepean at the table.
I’ll keep listening, keep turning up, and keep reporting back. Our people deserve a representative who treats this job as a two-way conversation, and I’d be honoured to be that voice.
Anthony Marsh, Liberal Party
This by-election there is a clear choice for our community. A choice between a team who can deliver, and others who can only sit on the sidelines.
For too long, we haven’t been getting our fair share. We contribute like every other part of the state, yet too often we are left behind when it comes to funding, infrastructure, and essential services.
This election is an opportunity to change that.
It is an opportunity to back a real plan to rebuild Rosebud Hospital – not patch it up, not review it again, but properly rebuild it and keep it in public hands so families can access the care they need close to home.
It is an opportunity to deliver safer, more reliable roads, including a genuine plan to fix congestion and hold Penlink operators to account. And it is an opportunity to ensure Nepean finally receives its fair share of government funding.
That’s why our local plan is so important, and I’m asking you to back it.
But this by-election is about more than local priorities alone.
The road to change starts here in Nepean.
It’s time to get rid of Jacinta Allan and her government to deliver the fresh start our state so desperately needs.
A vote for anyone other than the Liberal Party in Nepean makes it easier for Jacinta Allan to remain in office. I get it that locals are frustrated with the current government – I am too – that’s why I put up my hand as your Liberal candidate. But at a time like this, supporting minor parties only makes the task of changing the government more difficult.
If you want a rebuilt Rosebud Hospital in public hands, better roads, less crime and a government that listens, then the choice at this by-election is clear.
Milton Wilde, Reform AU
Nepean is one of the great places in Victoria to live, raise a family, run a small business, and enjoy the Peninsula lifestyle. But right now too many locals feel squeezed: rents and mortgages are brutal, power bills keep rising, congestion is getting worse, and too often our voices are ignored until election time. Local tradies and small businesses need red tape cut, reliable energy, and customers who can still afford to spend.
I’m standing because I’m sick of the “safe seat” mentality and the tired duopoly that treats communities like Nepean as an afterthought. Reform AU is a community-first, common-sense movement: we listen, we tell the truth, and we fight for practical outcomes – without the spin, factional games, or backroom deals.
If elected, my priorities for Nepean will be:
- Cost of living: tackle wasteful spending, challenge unfair taxes and charges, and push practical energy policies that put households first.
- Housing and rentals: get serious about supply and planning, protect neighbourhood amenity, and restore balance so locals and workers aren’t priced out.
- Community safety: back police and frontline services, support victims, and push for bail and sentencing settings that protect the public.
- Health and services: fight for accessible local care, reduce wait times, and ensure population growth is matched by real infrastructure – roads, schools and services.
- Small business and jobs: cut red tape, support local enterprise, and create conditions for investment and apprenticeships.
- Honest government: daylight on contracts, consultants and rorts – value for money, every time.
I’m not asking for blind loyalty. I’m asking for a fair go: judge me on whether I show up, listen, and fight for Nepean’s families. This community deserves representation that actually works.
Peter Angelico, Libertarian
Peter Angelico is not a career politician, he’s a manufacturer, small business owner, and industry advocate who has spent decades solving real-world problems, not talking about them.
As the founder of ABECK Group and President of SEMMA, Peter has worked at the coalface of Australia’s economy, employing locals, navigating red tape, and fighting for the survival of manufacturing in an increasingly hostile regulatory environment. That experience has shaped a simple belief, when systems fail, people pay the price. That’s why he’s running for Nepean.
Peter sees a growing disconnect between government decision-making and everyday reality. While families and businesses are dealing with rising costs, deteriorating infrastructure, and increasing taxes, both major parties continue to prioritise large spending programs, bureaucracy, and political messaging over practical outcomes.
The Libertarian Party offers a different approach.
It’s built on the principle that individuals, families, and businesses, not governments, are best placed to make decisions about their own lives. That means lower taxes, less red tape, and a government focused on doing fewer things properly rather than trying to do everything poorly.
For Nepean, that translates into clear priorities, fixing local roads, delivering reliable healthcare, supporting small business, and restoring accountability to public spending. It also means asking harder questions about multi-billion dollar projects that deliver limited value to local communities while adding to long term debt.
Peter’s campaign is grounded in a philosophy familiar to any tradesperson, measure twice, cut once. Plan properly, spend responsibly, and deliver what you promised.
After decades in business, he’s not interested in playing politics, he’s running to bring practical thinking, accountability, and real world experience back, because Nepean deserves better.
Tracee Hutchison, Independent
This is the most important election in the history of the Nepean electorate. A seat held by the Liberals for 20 years on nothing but empty promises, and systemically neglected by a Labor Government that cares so little about Nepean it’s not fielding a candidate.
Two-party politics has failed Nepean. And you deserve better.
You deserve a truly local, self-funded Community Independent MP who will do the job the Victorian Liberal Party has failed to do for over two decades and hold this Victorian Labor Government to account.
You deserve a Member of Parliament who is not afraid of taking on a Premier who looks after her own electorate with a shiny new hospital, but expects you to travel to a Labor-held seat for your healthcare. Frankston’s $1.1 billion hospital is too far away and an insult to our community that relies on Rosebud Hospital.
I will get the Hospital I was born in rebuilt, with the same funding model that delivered public hospitals to Victorians in Bendigo, Frankston and Footscray.
I will fight for our fair share of investment in our roads and affordable housing, take climate action seriously to protect our natural environment, champion our world-class tourism businesses, and support our creative and First Nations communities. I’ll establish a Nepean Youth Council to hear directly from our young people. And I’ll continue to oppose the inappropriate commercial development in our publicly-owned Arthurs Seat State Park.
This is not the time for grievance politics. It’s time for a member of Parliament who will look for the values and aspirations we share and get a better deal for us all.
I’ve spent my career as a journalist holding people in power to account – and I’ll carry that same fearless determination to represent you as your Independent Member for Nepean.
Renee Thompson, Legalise Cannabis Victoria
My name is Renee Thompson and I am proud to be your candidate in Nepean.
This is usually a safe Liberal seat, but they are in complete disarray. I am worried that this has left a space for divisive groups in the South-East. I understand that voters have had a gut-full, but voting for people who spread fear is not the way to stick it to the major parties.
I represent Legalise Cannabis Victoria. We are a Party of cannabis law-reform, but we do so sensibly. Tony Parsons – a former Magistrate of the Drug Court – called cannabis law reform the “holy trinity” of good policy reform: it’s the right thing to do, backed by evidence and enjoys broad community support. Over 80% of Victorians support decriminalising cannabis – the police have better things to do than lock people up for enjoying a joint in their own homes.
I am all about community and a fair go. Now, more than ever, we need to stick together and make Nepean a better place to live and work. Better roads, hospitals, healthcare, schools and facilities. We are losing who we are. In the wise words of Dolly Parton, ‘if you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.’ I want us to pave one together.
Legalise Cannabis Victoria (LCV) is a vote for good. We are a party of compassion. We have a solid track record, and we will continue the incredible work of our MPs – Rachel Payne (South-East) and David Ettershank (Western Metro). This by-election is so important. Your vote will tell the major parties – and the newer ones attempting to divide and conquer – where the people of Nepean stand. This will have a huge impact on the state election in November; so please, use your vote wisely.
First published in the Mornington News – 28 April 2026
