Labor names Kerry McDonald to take on Chris Crewther in Mornington

With less than seven weeks until Victoria’s election on November 28, Labor has announced Kerry McDonald as its Mornington candidate.

The Mount Martha mother of two and grandmother of one explains that her late nomination was a result of her own reflection and the Labor candidate vetting process.

In an RPP FM exclusive, she told Peninsula Talks that, with that process done: “We’re raring to go to hit the ground running.”

The campaign, she says, has been carefully planned and will draw on her broad professional background, local funding and people to help with the campaign.

“I’ve worked in government as a senior public servant and I understand how it works and the complexities of delivering services like health, education, police and justice.”

Kerry McDonald says she has been a proud member of the Labor Party for many years.

“My commitment to Labor is because it's a social reform party, which protects workers and their rights, has robust social safety net, universal health care and education, fairness, equity and a credible climate action.”

That experience shapes one of her reasons for standing.

“I want to push back on some of the simplistic and glib solutions being proposed by others in this election.”

Defending Labor’s local record

Kerry McDonald enters a seat held continuously by the Liberals since its recreation in 1985.

She also understands the difficulty of campaigning for a government that has been in power for twelve years and faced questions of leadership.

But she also understands Chris Crewther won the seat in 2022 by only 590 votes over independent Kate Lardner.

This year, Crewther faces independent candidates Melissa Goffin and Adrian Maher, One Nation’s Ashli Beards and a renewed Labor challenge.

In the next weeks, she says, she wants to set the Labor record straight.

“There’s always a lot of talk around commentary that Labor doesn’t do anything for the Mornington community, but that’s not true,” she said.

She also points out Labor’s delivery of sporting improvements, including Alexandra Park’s pavilions, and school and kindergarten upgrades as examples of investment she wants voters to consider.

She also takes issue with the Committee for Frankston and Mornington Peninsula’s benchmarking analysis that identifies a capital funding inequity between Geelong and the Peninsula.

The analysis identifies about $4.2 billion in capital investment commitments for Geelong–Queenscliffe, compared with $1.8 billion for Frankston–Mornington Peninsula across three state budgets.

McDonald disputes whether the regions provide a suitable comparison.

“I don’t subscribe to the comparison personally,” she said.

“Geelong is the second largest city in Victoria. It was a manufacturing hub. It’s a major port. It’s an urban environment, whereas Mornington Peninsula is significantly rural.”

Potholes: traffic, climate and bitumen

On the issue of potholes, McDonald defends Labor’s repair strategy but points to bigger issues:

“There’s solving the immediate problem, which is filling the potholes, but there’s also looking at the causes of those potholes,” she said.

Those factors include more heavy vehicles, increased traffic and the impact of climate change on the road system.

“We’ve got more cars on our roads, we’ve got heavier vehicles on our roads. Perhaps we now need to look at the material that’s used to build roads.”

McDonald also questioned whether existing road surfaces were suited to those changing conditions, suggesting alternatives to conventional bitumen should be examined.

“Perhaps as a whole we need to revisit how we surface our roads and therefore how we maintain them.”

Crime, energy and homelessness

She also defends the government’s efforts and policies on crime, advocating improved policing with early intervention and attention to the causes of offending.

Improving Frankston figures appear to substantiate the argument.

When asked to nominate her priorities, McDonald nominated greater uptake of clean energy, a fair share of homelessness investment and preparation for a changing climate.

That, she says, means more solar for homes and businesses, greater use of batteries and electric vehicles, arguing that the transition can reduce energy costs as well as emissions.

On homelessness, she says securing the Peninsula’s share of accommodation and support services would be a priority.

Her third focus is community resilience: helping residents and businesses understand and prepare for the effects of climate change.

“Do households and businesses understand what it will mean for them in the next five, ten years and beyond?”

Protection of the Green Wedge is also central to her position.

“As an environmentalist … I think we have to protect and restore our natural environment,” she said, highlighting the Peninsula’s agricultural land as an economic asset as well as part of its landscape.

Taking the campaign to voters

Labor’s preference recommendations remain undecided, McDonald said. The party sets the policy.

For now, her task is to introduce herself to voters through street conversations, forums, household mail-outs and the work of local volunteers.

“I’m going to give it my best,” she said.

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