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Voices of Wannon endorses our community independent candidate!
Voices of Wannon is delighted to announce that we have endorsed Alex Dyson to be our community independent candidate for the coming Federal election. Voices of Wannon has donated to help kick start Alex’s campaign, and is also providing a shop front in Warrnambool as a community hub for the duration.
To find out more, visit Alex’s website at alexdysonindependent.com.
Voices of Wannon are a group of individuals who have come together to facilitate a meaningful connection between the people of Wannon & our political representatives.
We are not a political party.
Through community consultation we are gathering the diverse views of the Wannon electorate and advocating to ensure our common values are conscientiously represented in parliament by those we elect.
Voices of Wannon - Who Are We?
Voices of Wannon are citizens from a wide range of backgrounds from across the electorate of Wannon who have become disaffected with party politics.
We expect higher standards from our political leaders. We are committed to advocating for representation that is an honest, meaningful & transparent consultative process between the electorate & our elected representatives.
Voices of Wannon believe that we can create a more meaningful connection between the people of Wannon & our political representatives. We plan to do this by seeking your input through a simple & effective process called Kitchen Table Conversations. This process allows the Wannon electorate to give voice to their interests, concerns & ideas which are heard, collated & placed at the centre of the political process.
Voices of Wannon - Our Progress
What Wannon Wants
During 2021, Voices of Wannon held 22 Kitchen Table Conversations involving over 120 participants from right across the electorate of Wannon. The number of in person conversations was limited by COVID restrictions, so we held some conversations online and also enabled individuals to contribute their views via an online forum. A further 50 people contributed via this online option.
The views expressed by all participants were collated and summarised into our first What Wannon Wants (2021) report.
Advocating for What Wannon Wants
In order to get action on the key priorities identified in our report, we approached the then member of parliament, Mr Dan Tehan. Unfortunately Mr Tehan was unable to attend our scheduled meeting.
Voices of Wannon then decided to seek and endorse a community independent candidate to stand up for Wannon’s priorities at the 2022 Federal election. We were fortunate enough to have Alex Dyson put his hand up to stand up for us.
We were delighted with Alex’s positive campaign, and stoked that our electorate is now marginal!
You can read further detail on the 2022 campaign here.
Community listening update 2023-2024
From mid 2023 until April 2024, Voices of Wannon held another round of community consultation to enable another cohort of Wannon residents to have their say. During this time the group facilitated a further 26 Kitchen Table Conversations involving over 150 people. We also enabled people to contribute their priorities via an online survey.
The opinions and priorities of the people of Wannon were collated into our second, updated version of What Wannon Wants. See here for details.
‘Kitchen Table Conversations’ is a powerful model where small groups meet & discuss what’s important to them. This consultative process will culminate in a report which will be presented to our current political representative to guide them in their decision-making for the community.
The report is aimed at not only giving non-partisan feedback to our sitting representatives, but also as a starting point to further engage communities through information sharing & a range of activities - keeping our finger on the pulse of issues that matter in our electorate and beyond.
Find out more about Kitchen Table Conversations.