Advocating for What Wannon Wants

In order to get action on the key priorities identified in our What Wannon Wants report, we had attempted to make an appointment to discuss the report with the then member of parliament, Mr Dan Tehan. Unfortunately Mr Tehan was unable to attend our scheduled meeting in November 2021.

An invitation from Voices of Wannon to discuss the report with Mr Tehan remains open.

Advocating for What Wannon Wants - Another Way

It became apparent that our current member of parliament was not committed to addressing the key priorities raised in the What Wannon Wants report. As our purpose is to advocate for action on the priorities of our community, Voices of Wannon decided to seek action in another way.

In the context of an upcoming Federal election, Voices of Wannon sought expressions of interest for a community independent candidate to stand in Wannon on a platform addressing the key priorities of What Wannon Wants.

Community Independent Candidate

Voices of Wannon was delighted to receive interest from a number of excellent Wannon locals to become our endorsed candidate.

After a rigorous selection process, over 40 members of Voices of Wannon convened in December 2021 and unanimously endorsed Alex Dyson as our Community Independent Candidate.

2022 Wannon Campaign

For the first five months of 2022, Alex Dyson spent hundreds of hours travelling across Wannon, meeting with a huge variety of people. His team synthesised these consultations together with the key priorities from What Wannon Wants into a sophisticated campaign platform.

With the support of a large number of volunteers and a highly motivated campaign team, Alex’s campaign gained significant interest and attention.

The election was held on 21 May 2022 and the result in Wannon was so close that it was not clear who would be successful for many days. Alex gained 20% of the primary vote and forced the count to preferences - an amazing result!

Despite our community independent not being successful at the 2022 election, it became apparent that there was a huge groundswell of support for Alex’s positive, inclusive and consultative way of doing politics.

Wannon is now a marginal seat!

Who knows what this may lead to in the future?