Greens candidate for the seat of Batman, social worker Alex Bhathal, announced today that central to her campaign to make Batman the second lower house Greens-Labor marginal seat in Victoria after the seat of Melbourne, will be a healthier Batman.
“I want to see a healthier electorate of Batman, with better access to GPs and other health workers, including dieticians and preventative practitioners such as chiropractors and osteopaths, as well as a universal dental scheme” said Ms Bhathal.
“But Batman’s residents also need clean air and healthy food” said Ms Bhathal.
“Labor and Liberal are committed to building more roads” said Ms Bhathal. “We need a vastly improved public transport system so we can escape from the path to greater traffic congestion and pollution”.
“We need to fix Batman’s air quality and provide people with the time and physical spaces to enjoy their lives and affordable housing” said Ms Bhathal.
“Many people know The Greens have strong, principled policies on climate change. But sustainability is about health and a decent standard of living too. Our vision for a healthier Batman includes:
• Prioritising a 24 hour health service for the electorate, which is home to almost 140,000 people, through the Greens plan to fund more salaried GPs.
• Making sure that people get proper treatment in the community, with a preventative health policy, including a national system of publicly funded dental care.
• Fixing Batman’s child care crisis with a major, multi-million dollar injection of funds into community child care and a return to core government funding for the community child care sector.
• Making home life better by amending workplace relations laws so that it's easier to look after children and spend time with the family.
Ms Bhathal will also be campaigning against Martin Ferguson’s failure to act on climate change and his plans for a nuclear waste facility on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory.
For more information, contact Alex Bhathal 0431 933 546