I was driving through Longwood recently and found this amazing sculpture of the beautiful Azure Kingfisher outside the Whiteheart Hotel. Pure coincidence that it is the Voices for Nicholls logo. All I can say is GO LONGWOOD. The creator of this work is Tank & Tobin Sculpture Works of Longwood.

The lead up to the Election (whenever that is)

Earlier this month a group of us gathered in the Shepparton Library for a planning session guided by Fiona Smolenaars from Creative Outcomes. The purpose of the session was to set out some very specific activities for us to undertake in the lead up to the election, having finally accepted that we are not supporting an independent candidate this time around.

The overall focus for V4N is to act as the Shadow Member for Nicholls. As with all shadow ministers, our role will be to ensure that our sitting member, Sam Birrell, represents the needs and wishes of all the Nicholls community, speaks and acts with honesty and integrity and is called to account for his public statements.

Actions around this are:

• Develop an “integrity score card” – did Sam Birrell’s votes represent the views of people of Nicholls on issues they care about? You can investigate his voting record yourself on the They Vote For You website.

• Attend candidate events and ask questions beyond the talking points

• Respond to Sams and other candidates posts on social media with integrity and unity

To be able to pull this off we need to:

• increase the active membership of VfN (especially younger people)

• canvass the community so that we can, in all honesty and with data and statistics, speak to all candidates for the seat of Nicholls on behalf of the community needs.

CALL to ACTION

As per the handbook on how to be a “Voices” group “The Indi Way”, we need to speak to the community of Nicholls and ask them what they believe to be the needs and wishes of their community.

Given the importance of having more Kitchen Table Conversations to understand what is important to Nicholls I would like everyone who receives this newsletter fill in the attached questionnaire and send it back to [email protected]. If you can, ask those people around you who may be interested to fill in the form also.

From your responses we can begin to develop our list against which Sam’s voting history will be judged. This information can then be used to form questions and statements for our activities leading up to the election.

If, having filled out the form yourself, you feel you would like to be involved in holding more Kitchen Table Conversations, contact us and we will set you up with whatever you need.

Contact any of us for details.

Sue (Avenel) [email protected]

Liz (Seymour) [email protected]

Christine (Echuca) [email protected]

Kathy (Shepparton) [email protected]

Anna (Dookie) [email protected]

Mike (Shepparton) [email protected]

Peter (Tallarook) [email protected]

John (Seymour) [email protected]

Elizabeth Tregenza
Feb 2025

To complete the questionnaire you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat Reader. 
Right click on the link and select "Save link as.." to download the questionnaire.
Complete and email to [email protected]