Trent joined Bertha the giant cow down at the Fairfield Boathouse today to lend his support to Environment Victoria’s ‘Cut the Crap‘ campaign to get livestock – and their poo and trampling hooves – out of our rivers.

“As the only electorate in Victoria bounded on three sides by waterways, it’s fitting that Bertha has come to Northcote to raise awareness about the damage cows are doing to Victoria’s rivers and river banks.” Trent said.

“And as the only party talking about the environment at this election, I’m delighted to join Bertha to call for our river banks – which are publicly owned Crown Land – to be managed responsibly in the interests of all Victorians.” Trent said.

Bertha the giant cow has been all over Victoria in recent weeks, appearing in the most inappropriate of places, to highlight how inappropriate it is that cows are still permitted to trample and pollute our waterways and clean water.

Read the full Victorian Greens Water and Inland Aquatic Environments policy

Read more about the Victorian Greens vision for this election here

The campaign just got a massive boost! As reported in Crikey today, former Labor Mayor of Darebin, Cr Gaetano Greco has thrown his support behind Trent to win the seat of Northcote after more than 80 years in Labor hands.

While Labor’s been running one of the most negative campaigns we’ve ever seen in Northcote, we’ve stayed positive and kept the focus on our policies for a safer, fairer and more sustainable Northcote.

And so it’s great to see our positive approach and Trent’s concrete, practical policy commitments for Northcote getting the thumbs up from one of Labor’s most senior local figures.

After working with Trent on Darebin Council for the past 6 years, Gaetano has decided to publicly endorse Trent, saying Labor has taken our community for granted for far too long. This comes on top of Gaetano’s decision last week to resign from the Labor party and stand as an Independent in Preston at the state election.

“I want Labor to win the State Election, but it’s time we had change in Northcote. I’m backing Trent McCarthy to get things done,” Cr Greco said today.

“In the interests of Darebin, I’m putting party politics aside. Labor has taken our area for granted for far too long. But now, the seat of Northcote is on the cusp of change. This is good for democracy and good for our community.”

“As a former Labor Mayor, I want change that’s in the best interests of residents. I’ve worked with Trent for six years on Darebin Council and I trust him to work hard on behalf of our community in the Victorian Parliament.”

“Only Trent is fighting for the changes we need,” Cr Greco said.

Trent successfully gained Darebin Council backing this week for his proposal to support Supreme Court action being taken against East West Link by three metropolitan Councils.

In a vote that split Councillors four votes to three, Darebin Council will back the legal battle being fought by Moreland, Yarra and Moonee Valley Councils against this environmentally destructive and economically irresponsible toll road.

“Our community wants us to stand up to the State Government on this issue, so I was glad to win support in defending the interests of our residents,” Trent said.

If built, East West Link will have a massive impact on Darebin, pushing more traffic into Alphington, Fairfield and Northcote as trucks and cars exit at Chandler Highway to avoid the tolls.

It will also disrupt vital services along the South Morang train line for up to 5 years during construction, damage Merri Creek and destroy precious public open space and liveability in the inner city, particularly Royal Park.

And of course, it will further perpetuate our fossil-fuel intensive transport mix and its massive $18 billion price-tag will crowd out investment in public transport alternatives for decades to come.

“Only the Greens are unconditionally committed to stopping East West Link – and you can trust us to keep that promise before and after the election.”

Every footy fan knows the conventional wisdom about ‘keeping a lid on it’ as Grand Final day draws close. But here at Team Trent we confess, we can’t help it – the lid has blown off!

Every day, we’re hearing people tell us that they’ve never voted Greens before – but they’re voting for Trent. The whiff of change is in the air. As we head into the final three weeks of the campaign, there is a growing sense around the office and amongst our volunteers that we can really make history in Northcote!

But we’re not there yet. To win those 2,000 votes we need to get Trent into State Parliament, we need all hands on deck.

Our opponents have the money, but we have the people power. Will you be a part of the Green surge to get Trent across the line?

We’re asking our supporters to do three powerful things to help turn Northcote Green:

• Help us have powerful one-on-one conversations with voters – we’ve got loads of doorknocks on through the week and on weekends. Check our events page for details.

• Grab a pack of leaflets and letterbox our final pitch to voters on 15-16 November.

• Join our polling day team and help hand out How-To-Vote cards at Pre-poll 17-28 November and on Election Day, 29 November.

Maybe you can do one, or two, or all of these. Maybe it’s just a weekend or its a few hours a week.  Whatever it is, now is the time to pitch in.

Together, over these last three weeks, we can make history in Northcote. With your help, we can win on November 29!

Team Trent

PS  Don’t have time?  Donate instead!

Daniel Andrews and the ALP announced today they’ve rejected directing preferences to the Greens.

It seems that a vote for Labor is now a vote for Christian fundamentalists, Shooters or even Liberals.

Unfortunately, it seems Labor is more interested in conspiring with right wing parties and the Liberals on preferences to lock the Greens out of Parliament, than in getting progressive change.

Labor have preferenced right-wing parties before. In 2004 their preferences got Stephen Fielding from Family First elected in the Senate and knocked out the Greens.

Luckily, we know we can win Northcote without preferences

If just 2000 voters switch to Greens this election, Northcote can have a new voice in Parliament.

A vote for the Greens on 29 November is a vote for:

• stopping East West Link and building Chandler Express;
• stronger State planning laws and a ban on developer donations;
• leadership on climate and 2000 new clean energy jobs; and
• quality health and education regardless of your ability to pay

With your support, we can do it!

With 3 weeks to go, we need all hands on deck to get Trent elected.

Here are 3 powerful things you can do in 3 hours or less:

• Help us have powerful one-on-one conversations with voters – we’ve got loads of doorknocks on through the week and on weekends. Check our events page for details.

• Grab a pack of leaflets and letterbox our final pitch to voters on 15-16 November.

• Join our polling day team and help hand out How-To-Vote cards on Election Day, 29 November.

Trent met with a group of parents and kids at basketball training today, to announce his commitment to build a $10 million indoor sports facility as part of the planned re-development of the Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre. The facility would provide at least 4 indoor netball and basketball courts. 

A thousand Northcote residents have recently signed a petition calling for greater investment in local sporting facilities, to address the big gap that currently exists, particularly for girls’ sport.

“The lack of local netball and basketball facilities in Northcote means that families are having to drive long distances to get their kids to training and games. And their kids are missing out on the community benefits of belonging to a local club,” Trent said.

“There are plenty of football and cricket facilities across the inner north, which are accessed mainly by boys. But there’s a real gap in the sporting opportunities provided for girls, particularly netball.”

“The Victorian government spends $50 million a year on elite sports like the Grand Prix. The Greens are committed to redirecting some of those funds to investing in local sporting facilities that would make a big difference to the health, social and recreational opportunities available to our community.” Trent said

If you’re feeling like Trent’s face is everywhere you look at the moment – that’s because an amazing 400 people from one end of Northcote to the other have put their hands up to have a Trent campaign placard on their fence! 

But with just on 4 weeks to go until election day, there’s still plenty of time to get more signs out there. And we’ve just ordered another batch of signs to keep up with demand.

So if you’d like a sign for your fence, please email Kim or drop into the Campaign Office at 474 High St, Northcote.

And if you’d like to sign up to our weekly campaign email update or volunteer in other ways on the campaign – door-knocking, letter-boxing or handing out How to Vote cards on Election day, then please sign up here

Click here if you want to know more about where Trent stands on the issues that matter to Northcote

Today the Sunday Age featured a story about the problems of housing unaffordability and insecurity facing Victoria’s 1 million renters, describing them as Victoria’s ‘forgotten people’ because of the general lack of interest in their plight shown by successive Liberal and Labor governments. 

Well the Greens haven’t forgotten renters.

The Greens introduced legislation into Parliament only a few months back that would have removed the ability for landlords to evict tenants without giving a lawful reason. And it would have required all rental properties to pass a ‘roadworthy’ – to meet basic standards in relation to repair, comfort, safety, facilities and energy efficiency.

And energy efficiency is the elephant in the room that everyone else is ignoring.

Rising rents are of course a major driver of unaffordability. But with energy prices going through the roof, the other major hit on renters’ cost of living is the poor quality and poor efficiency of their home.

Requiring landlords to make a reasonable investment in low-cost, energy-saving measures like insulation, draught-sealing and low-flow shower-heads would save their tenants hundreds of dollars a year on their bills, and make the house much more comfortable (and safe) to live in, particularly in extreme weather events like heatwaves.

But Labor and the Coalition voted together to defeat our legislation.

In Northcote where house prices are rising exponentially, renting is no longer a temporary situation for young people planning to buy in the future. Thirty seven percent of Northcote households, or nearly 3,500 households rent their homes, compared with 27 percent statewide.

Renters deserve the same opportunity to save money on their energy bills as the thousands of homeowners who are taking advantage of cheap roof-top solar and other efficiency measures to cut their bills by hundreds of dollars a year.

And renters deserve to live in decent, safe and secure accommodation without having to complain to their landlord – and risk eviction.

The Greens have endorsed the One Million Homes plan (backed by a coalition of Victoria’s leading consumer, social justice and environment organisations), which is calling for government to commit to raising the performance of our housing stock to 5-star.

A central plank of the One Million Homes plan would be the introduction of minimum standards at the point of sale or lease, with a mix of other financial incentives to assist landlords and homeowners implement the new standards.

If I am elected to Parliament, I commit to reintroducing the Greens’ minimum standards legislation and getting a fair deal for renters on energy efficiency.

Trent McCarthy

Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber visited Victoria Road Northcote today, to join Trent’s call for a change to the rules governing the location of new pedestrian crossings – to save lives, prevent injuries and encourage walking for health.  

“Many communities have lobbied for safer crossings and been stonewalled by VicRoads perverse rules. Until the death or injury toll starts to rise, your request can’t qualify. I thought it was VicRoads’ job to prevent road injuries,” Mr Barber said.

“Any council that produces a ‘walkability’ plan should get approval for its new crossings, overriding VicRoads guidelines. The Greens will cut through VicRoads’ red tape, to save lives, reduce injury and make it safe and convenient to walk, which will be good for everyone’s health.

Trent McCarthy said “As a Councillor, I’ve fought alongside residents for safer pedestrian crossings and we keep hitting the same brick wall – VicRoads bizarre rules. Local families want to walk and ride to school and the State Government should be supporting that.”

“If I’m elected as the MP for Northcote in November, I’ll fight to have these rules changed.”

Trent and Greg were joined by Alex Bhathal, Support Candidate for Northern Metropolitan region, who noted that she had personally witnessed several near misses and narrowly avoided accidents at this spot, and that it was time this dangerous situation was fixed.

It’s not every day we see a TV news crew in Northcote, but today ABC reporter Frances Bell was at the EnviroShop on High St to interview Trent and Greens Leader Greg Barber about the Greens plan to grow clean energy jobs. 

A new report from the Clean Energy Council has confirmed the Victorian Greens policy for boosting solar and driving energy efficiency will create 2000 new clean energy jobs.

“This report shows that the Greens clean energy policies create jobs. Our policies can be enacted quickly and there will be an immediate boost to employment,” Greg Barber said.

“On Darebin Council I secured support for an innovative scheme that is giving over 300 pensioner households access to roof-top solar at no upfront cost and creating jobs in local businesses like the Enviroshop,” Trent McCarthy said.

“If I’m elected on November 29, I’ll drive the roll-out of the Greens Solar Saver Plan statewide. We think everyone deserves the chance to cut their power bills – not just those who own their homes or can afford the upfront costs.” Trent said.

Fairfield solar installer, Mark Lyons was also on hand to talk about the direct benefits of the Greens plan for businesses like his.

“We’ve seen a huge growth in roof-top solar as electricity prices have kept rising. But if we’re going to keep growing the industry and keep creating jobs, we need governments to think long term and give the industry some certainty,” Mark said. 

“Clean energy jobs are high skilled and well paid and based in local communities, including regional Victoria. With unemployment rising, we need fast action to create opportunities for those whose industries are declining,” Mr Barber said.

Links:
http://victoria.greens.org.au/solarsavers
http://vicmps.greens.org.au/content/state-government-move-will-raise-ene…
http://greens.org.au/initiatives/vic/VRET