David Southwick Holds Hope Amidst Uncertain Election

Victoria’s upcoming state election is set to shake up many previously safe seats in parliament with many eyes being on the seat of Caulfield, a mostly safe Liberal seat since it’s creation in 1927.

Many are predicting David Southwick, member for Caulfield since 2010 and deputy Liberal leader, will lose the seat after holding on in 2018 by just 205 votes. This made the seat the most marginal in Victoria in the previous election.

While many have used this figure as a reason to predict Mr Southwick will lose his seat, he thinks that there’s more behind that number that “isn’t being reported on”.

“The swing around [the Liberal’s] seats was about eight or nine percent and I had just a four percent swing,” said Mr Southwick in an interview.

Mr Southwick attributes this lesser swing to him being a “local community politician” which he said means putting aside his personal opinions on matters.

“Regardless of my point of view on certain things, I take a temperature read of the people in my electorate to see what issues people are concerned about and I advocate for them in parliament,” he said.

This has led to Mr Southwick making healthcare his primary focus in the coming election, with a renovation to Caulfield Hospital as a key part of his focus to improve “substandard” facilities.

Funding was previously put towards creating a plan for renovations to the hospital, however the plan was never made public and renovations never proceeded.

Mr Southwick also said the Triple Zero service and Victorian ambulances are in need of attention where deaths occurred due to delays. A recent report leaked to the public suggest that at least 1000 Victorians have been harmed by response delays.

Mr Southwick said public schools in Caulfield and surrounds are also “in need of upgrades” which he said have been ignored by the government in the latest budget.

Climate change is something David Southwick feels differentiates the state Liberals from the federal Liberals, who he feels gives them a “bad wrap”.

“I’m really keen to try and sell [the Liberals climate change policies] more,” he said.

“Because we’re a party that is so strong on innovation it just makes sense that we should be pushing the energy of the future.”

Many predict newly independent candidate Nomi Kaltmann to be Mr Southwick’s biggest threat in the upcoming election.

Mrs Kaltmann, who previously worked for the Labor party until she renounced her membership and went independent, is the first teal candidate announced for this state election.

She told The Guardian “party politics wastes a lot of time” and the rise of independent candidates in the federal election pushed her to become independent.

“[Party politics] is often highly ineffective and bogged down on lots of details and factions. I think it was the best choice to become independent,” she said to The Guardian.

Mrs Kaltmann is backed by the Voices of Caulfield group, which was created after the Voices of Goldstein group supported federal independent Zoe Daniels to her victory in the previously Liberal held seat in this year’s federal election.

Alex Fein, president of Voices of Caulfield, said to The Guardian that Kaltmann was “the clear winner” for the group’s support as the independent candidate.

“Caulfield deserves the best independent candidate,” Ms Fein said to The Guardian.

“We think Nomi is a brilliant candidate that has the drive, passion and community backing to succeed.”

Mrs Kaltmann told The Age that her policies will be very similar to many federal independents, focussing on climate change and gender equality.

Labor put forward corporate lawyer Lior Harel as their candidate for Caulfield. Labor has never held the seat of Caulfield since its creation.

Mr Harel told Australian Jewish News he will “get things done” and “cut through the political noise” in Caulfield.

“I am passionate about Labor’s plans to provide affordable childcare, grow our investment in renewables, lower the cost of living and deliver infrastructure projects our community deserves,” he said to Australian Jewish News.

The Victorian Greens have not publicly nominated a candidate at the time of writing and did not return a request for comment.

Even with new candidates in the race, David Southwick hopes that his established reputation will help voters come election day.

“With the last two years, community has become even more important,” said Mr Southwick.

“I’ve always focussed on [being in touch with the community] so that will hopefully be something that people will say ‘oh David’s always been really good about that’.”

When the people go to the polls come November 26, Mr Southwick has one thing he wants to say to voters.

“[Voters] can rest assured knowing should I be re-elected that I will always put my community’s interests first.”