AN independent federal election candidate hoping to unseat the Nationals’ Anne Webster has the backing of Mildura state MP Ali Cupper and both say they will collaborate on issues affecting the region.
Sophie Baldwin, 47, who lives near Cohuna and is an Iron Man triathlete and a former dairy farmer and chief executive of a Riverina irrigators’ organisation, yesterday launched her campaign in Mildura, the electorate’s biggest population centre.
Member for Mildura Ali Cupper, also an independent, was the main speaker at the launch and later posed for pictures with Ms Baldwin and her campaign team at Jaycee Park.
Ms Baldwin said later that she and Ms Cupper, a former Labor candidate who has held her state seat as an independent since 2018, were “two women who can work together to achieve outcomes for Mallee”.
A federal election date has not been set, but it must be held by the end of May.
Ms Baldwin told Sunraysia Daily that she was not aligned to any side of politics, but that she had a farming background and strong rural values.
She has already begun collaborating with Ms Cupper by backing the Mildura MP’s “Rategate” campaign, aimed at achieving a more equitable system for the setting of municipal rates in regional Victoria.
Ms Cupper said at the campaign launch that she met Ms Baldwin “a couple of months ago” and had been impressed.
“If you look at the map, there’s a lot of overlap between those two seats (Mildura and Mallee) and I can imagine what Sophie and I could do together, as MPs collaborating across state and federal parliaments,” she said.
“It would supercharge our region’s growth to have two independents working in concert across both the federal and state seats.”
Ms Baldwin said at the launch that “rural communities do not have a strong political voice”.
“Imagine the possibilities if we had two independents working for Mallee, and what we could achieve,” she said.
The Nationals, previously known as the Country Party, have held Mallee for 73 years, including 44 years in coalition government with the Liberal Party.
Ms Baldwin said the junior Coalition partner had failed to adequately support constituents in what is seen as a safe Nationals seat.
“Is it acceptable that the average weekly Mallee wage is $500 below the country’s average? We struggle to access medical services, education, daycare and adequate telecommunications services, essential building blocks for communities,” she said.
“I want to see things improve. Better roads, better rail, better access to essential services.”
In the event that neither of the major parties secures a majority in the House of Representatives, crossbench support from smaller parties and independents would be needed to form a government, potentially giving them significant political power.
Having worked as an advocate for irrigators, Ms Baldwin also plans to campaign strongly on water.
“We need to look at why in the driest continent on Earth we continue to prioritise and plant permanent plantings so far down the system,” she said.
“I am not talking about horticulture that has supported generations of citrus, avocados, dried fruit and grapes, but rather the unregulated and uncontrolled development of thousands of hectares of permanent corporate plantings with no thought given to increased conveyance and how the volumes of water will be delivered once maturity is reached.”
She plans to hold a series of meetings across the electorate in coming weeks and will run under a slogan of “A voice for you in 2022”.
