Nowhere fast
the Addy and the Herald Sun, appears to have escaped his or his electoral office staff’s attention.
Must have coincided with a local soccer match or Cats game presumably.
Mr Marles has also been in print in the past two weeks demanding Morrison fast-track the promised northern hub mental health facility. “The Government’s own figures show that 15.8 per cent of residents of Greater Geelong are experiencing high or very high levels of psychological distress,” Mr Marles said. “Prior to the last election, the Minister for Health announced that a re-elected Morrison government would establish a mental health facility in the Corio electorate.”
All good stuff in fighting for the things that the north wants, needs and by implication is available to all other suburbs. He’s prepared to go into bat for the people he represents.
Strangely, Mr Eren doesn’t appear to have any thoughts on this matter, either in parliament or on his Facebook page. Perhaps he was at a bowls tournament when this particular problem was highlighted by Mr Marles. In his final demand to Morrison, Mr Marles launched into the homelessness crisis in Geelong. “The causes are complex; there’s no single trigger,” he said. “But we know that family and domestic violence and housing instability are the most common reasons that people sought homelessness assistance in 2015-16.” Mr Marles said that despite the work of organisations such as the Barwon South West Homelessness Network, the Government “needed to do more”. He added: “The Morrison Government needs to demonstrate more leadership and take real action on combating homelessness.” That bloody current — Coalition — government, again found to be wanting in addressing the needs of Geelong, and in particular the underprivileged, underemployed, under-serviced northern suburbs. So I looked for some comment from Mr Eren but nothing was there, so I can only assume he was at a sporting club presentation night on this occasion.
However, one Geoffrey Payne did pose a question of Mr Marles on Twitter that went like this: “What did you do to combat it when you were in power? Did you build more social housing, did you raise Newstart, did you cut franking credits, did you do anything about negative gearing?”
That’s really the rub, isn’t it? Mr Eren has been a member of the sitting State Government for nearly 20 years bar when Baillieu and Napthine filled in for the Libs for a couple of years. Mr Marles was a member of the sitting Federal Government from 2007 until 2013. Both have impregnably safe seats.
If their latest utterances — or in Mr Eren’s case, lack of — are anything to go by, they have spectacularly and miserably failed to achieve any progress in addressing the major problems that affect Geelong and particularly its northern suburbs.
In fairness with his Trade and Foreign Affairs responsibilities, Mr Marles had a lot on his plate when in government. But who can forget those marvellous narratives he published from foreign climes as he regaled us with interesting details of his travels on our behalf?
And let’s not forget John, who firmly established his credentials as the Minister for Selfies as he attended up to 114 sporting events per week when Minister for Sport.
Selfless devotion to their jobs or abrogation of their responsibilities to the people who elected them? I’ll let you decide that one.