Your Candidates Metropolitan
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YOUR CANDIDATES METROPOLITAN First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria Election 2019 “TREATY TO ME IS A RECOGNITION THAT WE ARE THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF THIS COUNTRY AND THAT OUR VOICE BE HEARD AND RESPECTED” Uncle Archie Roach VOTING IS OPEN FROM 16 SEPTEMBER – 20 OCTOBER 2019 Treaties are our self-determining right. They can give us justice for the past and hope for the future. The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria will be our voice as we work towards Treaties. The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria will be set up this year, with its first meeting set to be held in December. The Assembly will be a powerful, independent and culturally strong organisation made up of 32 Victorian Traditional Owners. If you’re a Victorian Traditional Owner or an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person living in Victoria, you’re eligible to vote for your Assembly representatives through a historic election process. Your voice matters, your vote is crucial. HAVE YOU ENROLLED TO VOTE? To be able to vote, you’ll need to make sure you’re enrolled. This will only take you a few minutes. You can do this at the same time as voting, or before you vote. The Assembly election is completely Aboriginal owned and independent from any Government election (this includes the Victorian Electoral Commission and the Australian Electoral Commission). This means, even if you vote every year in other elections, you’ll still need to sign up to vote for your Assembly representatives. Don’t worry, your details will never be shared with Government, or any electoral commissions and you won’t get fined if you decide not to vote. To enrol to vote or learn more about enrolling, visit www.firstpeoplesvic.org/enrol 3 WHERE AND HOW TO VOTE Voting is easy and will be open from 16 September until 20 October 2019. You can vote in person at various polling places around the state, via post or online at www.firstpeoplesvic.org/vote On your ballot, you’ll need to write the number ‘1’ in the box next to your favourite candidate, number ‘2’ next to your second favourite and so on until you number at least nine boxes. You may then, if you wish, number some or all of the remaining boxes in your order of preference. In your region, you’re voting to elect nine representatives to the Assembly. Learn more about all the voting regions at www.firstpeoplesvic.org/your-region Mildura Swan Hill 3 Wangaratta Horsham Bendigo Wodonga Shepparton 3 Hamilton Melbourne 3 Bairnsdale 3 Ballarat 9 Portland Warrnambool Traralgon Geelong General elected seats in each region Seats reserved for formally 11 recognised Traditional Owner Groups 4 HOW TO VOTE IN PERSON To vote in person, you can access any of the polling booth locations across the state. At the polling location the team will ask you for your name and address to mark you off the roll, then provide you with a ballot. If you have questions, they can show you how to fill out the ballot correctly and give you an opportunity to practice if you want. If you have not yet enrolled to vote, you can do this at the same time, remember to bring ID with you. HOW TO VOTE ONLINE After you have enrolled, you will be sent your Enrolment ID Number by email, letter or SMS. As voting commences, you will be sent another email, letter or SMS with your password and instructions on how to vote. You will be asked to enter your Enrolment ID Number and Password sent to you. These are unique to you and cannot be used by anyone else. You will be asked to click the candidates in the order you wish to vote for them. You will then click Next and will see a confirmation screen. Click Finish, and your vote will be cast. You cannot change your mind after this step. If you haven’t filled out the ballot correctly, the system will tell you and ask you to fix it before submitting. HOW TO VOTE BY POST If you selected that you wanted to vote by post when you enrolled, you will be mailed a ballot and instructions to the address provided. Read the instructions carefully and then fill out the ballot. To ensure your vote is valid you will need to sign the envelope before returning to us. Put this in the reply paid (free) envelope provided. You must post your vote by 20 October 2019 and it must be received by us by 30 October 2019 to be counted. If you haven’t already, you may request a postal ballot until 5pm 14 October 2019. 5 POLLING PLACES You can vote in person in your region at the following locations and times: Community meeting room Weekdays 9:30am–6:30pm Atherton Towers Monday 30 Sept – Friday 4 Oct 95 Napier Street Fitzroy Monday 7 Oct – Friday 11 Oct Melton South Weekdays 9:00am–5:00pm Community Centre (5:30pm on 2, 7 & 9 Oct) 43 Exford Road, Melton South Monday 30 Sept – Friday 4 Oct Monday 7 Oct – Friday 11 Oct Casey Aboriginal Weekdays 10:00am–6:00pm Gathering Place Monday 7 Oct – Friday 11 Oct 20 Agonis Street, Doveton Mullum Mullum Weekdays 10:30am–6:30pm Indigenous Gathering Place Monday 30 Sept – Friday 4 Oct 47 Patterson Street, Ringwood East First Peoples’ Health Monday 30 Sept – Friday 4 Oct and Wellbeing Centre Monday 7 Oct – Friday 11 Oct 317 – 319 High Street, Thomastown Mon (30 & 7), Wed (2 & 9) 9:30-5:30 Tues (1 & 8) 9:00am-4:30pm Thurs (3 & 10) 10:00am-6:00pm Fri 4 Oct 9:00am-12:00pm Fri 11 Oct 9:00am-11:30am Nairm Marr Djambana 9:30am–5:30pm Frankston Aboriginal Association Thursday 3 Oct 32 Nursery Ave, Frankston Healesville Indigenous Community 10:30am–5:00pm Services Association (HICSA) Friday 4 Oct 1A Badger Creek Road, Healesville 6 All venues (unless marked) are wheelchair accessible. If you have accessibility issues, let the team know and they’ll be able to help you, including coming out to your car if needed. IMPORTANT TO NOTE: If at the time of enrolment, you selected online or postal voting, you don’t need to do anything, information will be sent to you. If at the time of enrolment, you didn’t select online or postal, you can change this anytime by calling 1800 TREATY or emailing [email protected] You can vote at any polling booth regardless of your town or voting preference. If you decide you want to vote online after enrolling, contact us at 1800 TREATY or emailing [email protected] to request an online ballot. This request may be made until 9pm 20 October 2019. If you decide you want to vote by post after enrolling, contact us at 1800 TREATY or emailing [email protected] to request a postal ballot be sent to you. This request may be made until 14 October 2019. NEED HELP? Let us know how we can help. You can call Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission on 1800 TREATY (1800 87 32 89). To get in contact with your local Assembly Election Officer, visit www.firstpeoplesvic.org/get-in-touch or Contact the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission on 1800 TREATY (1800 87 32 89). 7 MEET YOUR CANDIDATES The following is a list of candidates you can vote for in the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria Election 2019. Read their candidate statements to learn a bit more about them. Candidates are listed in the order they appear on the ballot. Statements have been prepared by the indvidual candidates, they have not been edited unless they have exceeded the word count. MATTHEW BURNS ALISTER THORPE I am a proud Nira-Balluk man of the I am a Gunai man through my father with Taungurung Nation. I am currently the CEO of direct patrilineal blood connection to the Taungurung Land & Waters Council (TLaWC) Brabralung Clan. Our people recognise and Non-Executive Director of Federation of Boorun the pelican as the protector of all Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations. Gunai. I acknowledge my Yorta Yorta ancestry My strengths are within the areas of finance, on my Mother’s side and my Gunditjmara compliance, relationship development and ancestry on my Grandmother’s side. am a lateral thinker which I believe are skills My family have endlessly struggled for our that will be crucial through the inaugural people’s rights. They have been political period of the First Peoples Assembly. I activists and protesters providing the have a real passion for working within the impetus for development of our Aboriginal Traditional Owner space and genuinely community controlled organisations. They are make it a point to listen to & take on strong advocates for Aboriginal health and board community views when shaping my education. They have tirelessly campaigned approach to a variety of issues. My goals for for sovereignty, self determination and the Assembly are to provide a framework recognition of the past atrocities that have that acknowledges the sovereignty of each been committed against our peoples. Staunch Nation and provides opportunity for genuine families. These are the values and principles sharing of powers between the Victorian that have been entrenched in me by my State Government and each Traditional elders, my Grandmothers, my parents. If you Owner Nation. know my family, you know me. I feel my experience will be valuable within We are fed up with Government promises. the Assembly and will be complimentary to There is mistrust in Government processes the variety of skills and cultural knowledge and we are tired of Aboriginal community brought by other Assembly members.