By XAVIER SMERDON
THEY are the men that have chosen to take on the major parties at the next election and they want your votes.
Michael Freeman, Geoff Rogers and Joe Zappia may all be representing different parties in the upcoming election but they share one common goal, “to keep them honest”.
“Neither of the major parties over the last decade have been pulling their weight in this area,” Mr Zappia, who is running as a candidate for the Palmer United Party, said.
“Their policies haven’t been up to scratch and there are a lot of issues that need to be attended to.
“There has to be change, we can’t keep going on like this.”
Mr Freeman, from the Democratic Labour party, and Mr Rogers, from the Australian Christians party both agree with Mr Zappia that Lalor residents need more choice.
They are planning on relieving Labor and Liberal from some of their “rusted on voters”, as Mr Freeman puts it.
“I personally believe many people would like to do a lot better and a lot of issues are falling through the cracks,” Mr Freeman said.
“All three of us have been in the workforce for a long time. We are not just career politicians or union people that have been promoted.”
Mr Rogers, a semi-retired engineer, said he believed voters could shake up the next election by voting for a minor party.
“A lot of people don’t understand the power of preferential voting,” Mr Rogers said.
“We need to get the point across that it is not just about the two major parties, there are other options.”
Despite working together in many aspects of their election campaigns, the men still disagree over some key issues, with each of them firmly standing behind their personal views.
Mr Zappia said that Lalor needed to become more of a marginal seat in order to make politicians work for their votes.
“The wool has been pulled so far over the people’s eyes that they can’t see their own noses,” he said.
“Julia Gillard was a fantastic Prime Minister but we need to have more choice for the voters.”
