By XAVIER SMERDON
AFTER months of speculation, Member for Tarneit Tim Pallas has announced he will be moving to the newly created state electorate of Werribee.
Mr Pallas told Star last week he would be nominating for pre-selection of the seat, which will be created at next year’s election following a restructure this year.
He said he was told by the Labor Party that he needed to pick between Tarneit and Werribee and the new Werribee seat was a natural fit for him.
“Basically my office is here and the council I deal with the majority of the time is here,” Mr Pallas said.
“More importantly, the community that I deal with and work with every day is based around Werribee.”
Current Member for Derrimut, Telmo Languiller, has also put his hand up to move to the restructured Tarneit electorate.
Mr Languiller, who moved to Australia in 1974 with his family after they were forced to flee his birth country of Uruguay following civil unrest, said he was excited about the challenges that would face him in his new electorate.
“I remain the Member for Derrimut until the election in November 2014, and I am very grateful to the people of Derrimut who I have represented since 1999,” Mr Languiller said.
“Tim Pallas is already located in Werribee and the Labor party made a collective decision that it would be best for me to contest the next election in the seat of Tarneit.
“I believe the new challenges will be exciting, but many of the issues such as infrastructure and a growing population are the same.”
A new candidate will also be announced to contest the newly formed electorate of St Albans, which Mr Pallas said was a good thing for the West.
“It means one more seat in the West and out of the 88 seats in Parliament, the West gets another vote,” he said.
“This is a community that likes to rise to a challenge and I’m very happy that I can continue to represent them.”
