By Oliver Winn
With an election day announcement imminent, Labor has revealed its candidate for Casey, Naomi Oakley.
She will battle current MP Aaron Violi over the tightly held Liberal electorate they’ve held for 40 years.
“My experience comes from working in the community, being a sole parent and having to deal with the struggles of living paycheck to paycheck over the years,” Ms Oakley said.
Her campaign focuses on community safety, climate emergency management and helping victims of family violence, aiming to address these issues through a grassroots approach with the community.
Ms Oakley also prioritised better access to hospitals and health care while improving educational resources and access to technology to save on power costs.
“I have decided to stand for the federal seat of Casey because I believe my experience in the community uniquely prepares me to understand and deal with the complex issues that impact Casey,” she said.
Last election Ms Oakley ran for the seat of Menzies, securing a third of the first preference votes and 49 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, but ultimately lost to Liberals MP Keith Wolahan.
Growing up in Dixons Creek where she experienced Ash Wednesday bushfires, she eventually was forced to relocate after the Black Saturday bushfires.
“I can resonate with a lot of community issues through lived experience.”
“I think people genuinely just want someone who can really represent them and understand what they want and not just show up for the token photo opportunities,” Ms Oakley said.
From 1989 she worked for VicPol for 13 years before starting her own teenage party security and family violence assistance business, U-Nome Security, which she still runs today.
She said Labor’s rental cap and pledge to build 30,000 new social and affordable homes will assist in victims of family violence when leaving abusive relationships.
“I’ve been a frontline worker, and I’ve worked in hospitals, in mental health units and in aged care, so I see the challenges that some of the staff face.”
Ms Oakley said she aims to use her knowledge about youth mental health to provide a holistic approach to youth crime which aims at supporting healthy households.
“With Labor’s policies and assisting with cost of living, I actually think by providing families with more support, that then encourages mum and dad to not have to work those ridiculous hours and then be at home when their kids get home from school,” she said.
With climate change a dominant issue this election, Ms Oakley said she’ll address the impact of severe weather events if she’s elected.
“It’s not just about throwing money, I guess, into the roads and filling up potholes. We actually need to have some other different systems in place.”
