A progressive push in Macnamara

By Sean Car

With the advantage of having previously contested the seat at the 2016 Federal Election, Greens candidate Steph Hodgins-May is well placed to see inner-Melbourne’s progressive wave hit Macnamara in 2019.

After the Victorian Liberal Party announced candidates in the seats of Melbourne, Northcote, Richmond and Brunswick on the eve of last month's State Election, it’s clear our city’s political spectrum has now well and truly shifted left.

While such evidence may not be enough to suggest a victory for the Greens in Macnamara, with the change of electorate name (formerly Melbourne Ports) has also come a change of boundary that could see Labor’s majority wiped out.

5000 new voters in Windsor, a postcode dominated by the Greens in recent times, will now vote within Macnamara. With retiring Labor MP Michael Danby having only outpolled Steph by 953 on preferences in 2016, Greens preferences saw Labor eventually overtake the Liberal candidate Owen Guest to win by 2337 votes.

Combined with going up against two brand new candidates in Josh Burns (Labor) and Kate Ashmor (Liberal), Steph said she had real hopes of joining Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt in the House of Representatives.

Should she emerge victorious, she would become the first woman to represent the Greens in the lower house and end a 110-year Labor stronghold in the seat.

“It would be great to provide Adam [Bandt] with some company!” she said. “I think the Greens are really important for bringing a balance into all levels of politics and all levels of government and we’ve seen what Adam as one Federal MP can do.”

“If we doubled that representation we’re going to see a really strong voice for the environment, people seeking our protection and for those really progressive issues that I think Melburnians are crying out for.”

Born in Ballarat to a fifth-generation farming family from Blampied near Daylesford in Western Victoria, Steph’s “green” values for issues such as climate change and conservation stem from a young age.

Her passion for politics and people is in her blood. The inspirations of both her father, a former Hepburn Shire mayor, and mother, a public-school teacher, led her to study and practice law and international relations before pursuing a career in politics.

Now a small business owner and St Kilda local, she and partner Ogy Simic, a City of Port Phillip councillor and recent Greens candidate for Albert Park, are also new parents having given birth to son Otis this year.

Having come incredibly close to election in 2016, she said the experience had only reinforced the power of grassroots politics, which her party was notorious for.

“It’s talking to people on their doorstep and listening to them,” she said. “You’ve got to do the outreach, the consultation and have the discussions to really make sure that you’re really reflecting what they want out of their politicians.”

Macnamara recorded the third highest vote in Australia during last year’s same-sex marriage plebiscite and will also become home to the country’s first pride centre in St Kilda in 2020.

It’s such progressive issues as this and addressing climate change, refugees, affordable housing and energy that Steph said the electorate was becoming increasingly concerned about. Issues she said she would continue to champion.

And for the nearly 8000 registered voters in Southbank, she said she was keen to ensure better amenity for the whole community by getting tougher on planning, combustible cladding and short-stay accommodation.

“We want to make sure that we’ve got a liveable local community into the future and we’ve got a growing population so it’s just about managing those population pressures with adequate infrastructure, services and amenity to support our community,” she said.

“I think that’s one of the things you will get with a Greens member of parliament is that they will work with whichever government it is of the day to get good outcomes for the community.”

“We’re not working to election cycles as much. We’ve got a long-term vision for the state and for the country and I think we reduce the amount of politicking because for us it’s about good policy, good decisions, regardless of which party it is.”