Greens win mock election at Canterbury Girls Secondary College

Canterbury Girls Secondary College holds a "mock election" event during the campaign of every federal election. This is an excellent opportunity for the student to hear from political candidates from a variety of parties, ask them questions, then vote on ballots similar to those used for the House of Representatives (lower house) in the upcoming federal election.



The ballots (votes) are then counted from the "voting booth" and preferences distributed. This provides hands on experience for how our prefential voting system works.

This year, I spoke as the Greens candidate for Kooyong. My "opponents" were the Petro Georgiou (MP for Kooyong), Senator Lyn Allison (Leader of the Democrats) and Barbara Norman (Labor candidate for Higgins).


A wide range of topics were covered and as usual many good questions were asked.

I was fortunate enough the win the majority of primary votes, and be declared the "winner" after preferences were distributed. Here is the primary vote percentages:

Lyn Allison	16.4
Petro Georgiou	11.3
Peter Campbell	46.8
Barbara Norman	22.4
Informal	3.1
Total	100

While this does not set a precedent for the outcome for Kooyong in the upcoming federal election, it was nonetheless pleasing to see and hear so many year 9 students with a keen interest in taking real action on climate change and many other Greens policies I spoke about.

Kooyong electorate climate change candidate forum

When: Monday 3rd September 2007

Where: Hawthorn Town Hall, Burwood Road/Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn

Time: 7:30pm - Mon Sep 3 9:30pm

A coalition of climate change action groups across Kooyong is convening this forum to provide an opportunity to hear our House of Representatives candidates speak about what they would do to address climate change.

They are Petro Georgiou (Liberal), Ken Harvey (ALP), Peter Campbell (Greens) and possibly a Family First candidate.

The question convenor will be Michael Gorton, whose background includes being a founder of Greening Australia, a prime mover in United Nations Youth General Assemblies, an Equal Opportunities Commissioner, and chair of the Victorian Aboriginal Reconciliation Commission.

In addition, a speaker from Environment Victoria who will outline the major science findings and the immediate actions we can take. Questions will be taken from the floor. On display in the hall will be some local primary schools posters done by their children who have painted how they see reduction in greenhouse gas production, as well as some stalls with information about local climate change groups.

The Mayor of Boroondara will open this evening focused on assisting our community and our representatives to work together in playing a part to help to save our planet.

Further information/ Press interviews: enquiries@lighterfootprints.org

Carolyn Ingvarson 9836 0925