Australian Greens candidate for Ballarat West Leon Dwyer will speak at a community meeting tonight called to support a helipad in Ballarat. He will tell the meeting that he supports the community call for a helipad, but other critical health issues must also be addressed.

“This is an emotional issue, like many others in the community I have been touched by grief from recent events,” said Leon Dwyer.

Leon knew Claire Smith, aka “Becky Bloodnut”, through his involvement in the Ballarat Roller Derby League.

Greens candidate Dr Malcolm McKelvie has accused the Labor government of following the coalition policy of underspending on dental care. The Greens recognise dental care as part and parcel of good health and would establish “denticare”, a publicly funded dental health scheme for all Australians.

 “The coalition abandoned dental care in Australia and now Labor has done close to the same thing. They have announced new dental programs worth $781 million but at the same time scrapped a $491 million program”.

Greens candidate Dr Malcolm McKelvie says Labor has halved the funding to the highly successful Australian Primary Care Collaborative program just at the time when it should have been doubled.

Greens candidate, Dr Malcolm Mckelvie, is calling for a root and branch overhaul of Australia’s health system to make it fairer and more efficient. Dr McKelvie believes Gippsland is a classic example of the system being stretched to breaking point.