Cr Andrew Bond to challenge Martin Foley for Albert Park

City of Port Phillip councillor Andrew Bond has been preselected to run as the Liberal Party’s candidate for Albert Park in the 2018 state election.

Having served on council for the past five years, Cr Bond said he was the right candidate to challenge sitting Labor member Martin Foley, who has held the seat since 2007.

A St Kilda and former Southbank resident himself, Cr Bond said his understanding of local issues placed him in good stead to become the first Liberal member to claim the seat since Roy Schilling in 1947.

“I’ve been on the council for five years now and we’re getting a lot of state-based road blocks,” he said. “I think I’ve got the profile that can win the area.”

“This government is terrible. We need to get rid of them and actually fix a few of these problems we’re facing with electricity, education, crime, law and order, public transport and Fishermans Bend.”

Despite being unsuccessful in the 2014 state election, former Liberal candidate for Albert Park Shannon Eeles increased her party’s percentage of the two-party preferred vote from 38 to 46 per cent from the 2010 state election.

Ms Eeles also won 40 per cent of the primary vote, which was higher than Mr Foley’s 34 per cent. Mr Foley won the seat with 53 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

With the Liberal Party closing the gap on Labor, Cr Bond said being a familiar face in the electorate, as well as being preselected early, gave him the best possible chance of claiming victory.

He said one of the key issues he would be campaigning on was planning – particularly around public transport in Fishermans Bend.

“I think the current government, when they were in opposition, said that when they came in they would fix all of these problems but in three years they still haven’t resolved any of them,” he said.

“You cannot decide where the schools and parks go, what nature of development you’ll have down there until you know where the train is going, where the tram is going and when they’re going in.”

Martin Foley confirmed with Southbank Local News that he would be seeking reelection in the 2018 election.

He said his priority locally would be to continue the rebuilding of education, public transport and health services in the community after what he described as “four wasted years of the government that Matthew Guy and the Liberals were a part of.”

While Cr Bond argued the Andrews Government hadn’t done enough for Fishermans Bend in its first term, Mr Foley said his government was still cleaning up the “mess” left by the previous government.

“Probably the most significant issue for inner Melbourne is undoing the planning mess and developer free-for-all that Matthew Guy and the Liberals left in Fishermans Bend,” he said.