Nationals 'fighting' to win Bendigo as Jacinta Allan exits politics

Nationals 'fighting' to win Bendigo as Jacinta Allan exits politics In short: The Nationals say they "will be fighting very hard" to take Bendigo at the November state election as former premier Jacinta Allan announces she will not recontest the seat of Bendigo East. Lockwood South-based accountant David Hutchings is the Nationals' candidate to take on Labor MP and Speaker of the House Maree Edwards in Bendigo West. What's next? Labor Party branch members will begin to search for a candidate for the seat of Bendigo East. The Nationals' campaign to take the regional city of Bendigo has one less hurdle, as longtime member for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan resigns from politics. Former Victorian premier Ms Allan has been largely absent from her electorate since losing the Labor Party leadership to Ben Carroll last month. On Friday morning, she broke her three-week silence to announce she would not be recontesting the seat at the November state election. For six months, Nationals candidate for Bendigo East, Andrew Lethlean, has been running his campaign to oust Ms Allan after 27 years. He said Ms Allan's resignation did not change anything for him. "We have missed out; we had a city-centric government and Jacinta Allan was leading that city-centric government," Mr Lethlean said. "The fact the regions have missed out so much is the reason I'm running. "Our policy now is to get 25 per cent of the investment into the regions. Whether Jacinta Allan was there or not did not change my focus." Nationals leader Danny O'Brien said Ms Allan's time as premier and a minister "hadn't been a good experience". "It's not a surprise that she's gone, absolutely. We wish her all the best, but unfortunately Victoria is left with the worst, and that's a concern for all Victorians," Mr O'Brien said. "We need a fresh start. Andrew Lethlean will be fighting very hard for Bendigo East irrespective of who his opponent is." Associate professor of politics at Monash University Zareh Ghazarian said that while Mr Lethlean was expected to be very competitive in the upcoming election, Ms Allan's resignation "changes the political dynamic of the seat considerably". "The expectation was that the National Party was on an upward trajectory in that part of Victorian politics," Dr Ghazarian said. But he said a new Labor candidate could be more competitive than the former premier, and a One Nation candidate could shake things up even further. "I suspect that Bendigo East as an electorate is going to definitely be one of the seats to watch on election night," he said. "I expect it to be a very close result." Labor Party to begin candidate search Rank-and-file members of the Bendigo East branch of the Labor Party will now begin the process of finding a candidate to run against Mr Lethlean despite backing Ms Allan to stay in the seat. In a letter seen by the ABC, the branch's 80 members wrote to Ms Allan three days after her resignation as premier in late July, saying they were "right behind you". On Friday, Bendigo Trades Hall Council secretary Luke Martin said the branch had no-one in mind as a candidate and that its 80 members would work to find a candidate to nominate for preselection. In the letter, the branch's members praised Ms Allan for her investment in public schools, hospitals, and transport and her "tireless advocacy for regional communities like ours". Ms Allan's noticeable absence since her resignation as premier more than three weeks ago is also fuelling the Nationals' campaign to take Bendigo. On Friday, they announced accountant, volunteer firefighter and emergency responder David Hutchings, as the candidate for Bendigo West to take on incumbent MP and Speaker of the House, Labor's Maree Edwards. And the litmus test from her constituents was that, although Ms Allan had done a lot for Bendigo over her 27 years, many believed it was time for her to resign. Residents say resignation was the right decision Bendigo resident Charlotte Spencer said she thought it was the right decision for Ms Allan to resign and wanted more focus on climate action and more open areas. "I'm looking forward to seeing who steps up to take her place," she said. "She's facing a lot of backlash in the media, and maybe some of it is justified, but I don't know that she would have been able to do her job as well as she would with all of the pressure that she is under right now." Resident Betty Shalevski also said it was the right decision for Ms Allan to resign. "I think it's really good because I think if she didn't resign she would have been voted out. So I think she has done herself a favour,"Ms Shalevski said. "I think Labor will be a different face but the same policies, so I think we need a new leader like Andrew [Lethlean]. "Crime is number one, mental health is just out and everywhere and not really contained." The Greens have announced Michael Tolhurst as their Bendigo East candidate, and Liz Wright is running as an independent.