By Tara Murray
Former Hume mayor Carly Moore has quit the Labor Party to contest the seat of Calwell as an independent candidate at the upcoming federal election.
Cr Moore said it was an easy decision to quit the party as she felt the Labor’s priorities were not quite right.
“I think as a community we have been let down,” she said.
“We are in a pretty safe Labor seat and have been for a while.
“We haven’t seen our fair share. I don’t think that it is improving and the community has been taken advantage of for a long time.”
Cr Moore, who has been a Hume councillor for the past eight years and is a three-time mayor, announced her federal election plans on Wednesday.
The seat of Calwell is held by Labor’s Maria Vamvakinou, who is retiring before at election, which is due by mid-May.
Her former adviser, Palestinian-Australian Basem Abdo has been named as the Labor candidate for the seat.
The seat covers all of the Hume council area to the left of Sydney Road and the Hume Freeway.
Cr Moore said she believes that she’s the perfect person to represent Calwell.
At the Hume council elections last year, Cr Moore received 82 per cent of first preference votes in Aitken Ward, which is believed to be the highest in the state.
She said that she first thought of standing in the federal election in October, and the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.
“I’ll support the community and hopefully they will support me,” she said.
“I’ve been a councillor for eight years and I’m happy to be a councillor.
“I live here and work here and I have the community’s best interest at heart. They trust me and I think I will have strong support.
“I think we do some really good work. I want to be part of a lot more to be able to make change.”
Cr Moore cited the cost of living as the biggest issue affecting Calwell residents.
“I see it through the council rate arrears reports and the mortgage stress,” she said.
Another big thing for Cr Moore is the lack of plans for a hospital in Craigieburn.
She highlighted a situation last year where her father spent seven hours ramped at Northern Hospital, saying it was one of the busiest emergency rooms which was catering for massive growth.
“We will have a population the size of Canberra and there’s no plans to build a hospital [in Craigieburn].”
