Open election

In May 2012 the Victorian Liberal Government made a catastrophic decision to slash hundreds of millions of dollars from the public TAFE budget.
On 6 July 2012, Swinburne announced it would close its Lilydale campus.
On 9 July 2012 we fought back.
Since that time the outer east and the Yarra Valley have waged the most significant campaign of the last decade.
We said in July 2012 that we would not let the Liberal Government close our university and TAFE without a fight.
In just five weeks the community collected over 16 000 petitions, ran major rallies, held marches and called on the Liberal MPs to reverse these catastrophic decisions.
Since then we have seen off the property developers and the shire council that are keen to snap up our education campus.
There has been one person fighting from the start.
He helped organize rallies, he got soaked with us when we marched, he stood with us at our street stalls and he collected thousands of petitions. He has campaigned like no other.
Peter Harris has been in the fight from the start and he is now on the precipice of delivering us back our campus.
Labor has committed to reopening our campus. However there is only one thing that will stop a future government shutting it once more.
The community of the outer east and the Yarra Valley has a once in a generation opportunity to shock the political parties into never closing our campus again.
By voting out the Lilydale Liberal MP who voted for these cuts and shuts we can ensure no future politician is so cavalier with our children’s futures.
This November, vote for Peter Harris and send Spring Street the message it needs.
Josh Cullinan,
Boronia.