Labor has officially locked in their Federal Candidate to take on the seat of Lindsay.
Ahead of the upcoming Federal Election, Labor has confirmed current Penrith City Councillor Hollie McLean to take on sitting Liberal MP Melissa McIntosh to try to win the crucial seat.
McIntosh holds the Penrith-based seat by 6.1 per cent, she has successfully held the seat since 2019 and is looking to retain it for a third time.
McLean was elected to Council to represent the South Ward at the Local Government Election last September.
This will mark the first time McLean is stepping into the arena of federal politics, something she says she is very ready for.
“This is a sphere I’ve always been really interested in and it’s something that I’ve been passionate about forever and watched other people go through federal campaigns and sometimes end up in Parliament and sometimes not,” McLean said.
“It’s just been that right now I think I’m the right candidate for Lindsay for now. It’s one of those things that all the stars have aligned… everything has to line up properly and that time is now.”
If elected, McLean said advocating for education, health care, the airport and housing are some of the top priorities for her community as well as addressing the effects of the cost of living.
“I think running across all the other policy stuff is an understanding that the cost of living is really [challenging], it goes to the cost of seeing a doctor, it goes to the cost of education but it also goes to the prices at the supermarket, it also goes to anything we pay for like interest rates and rent,” she said.
“It’s been really interesting to watch over the last three years how the economic policy has played out. When the [Labor] government came in, we had high inflation, we had interest rates starting to go up… watching the decisions the government has made in successive budgets, I think that we are now at a time where we are starting to see the benefits of those long-term decisions.
“There is definitely a case to say why couldn’t it have happened faster? Couldn’t we have done something else to lessen the pain that all of us have been feeling for the last few years? Other places around the world did go faster and ended up with higher unemployment and other things that came out of that. So, that sort of slow, steady, pragmatic approach means that we haven’t had the spike in unemployment that other places have had.”
McLean has received congratulations from her Penrith Council colleagues with newcomer Garion Thain saying McLean will represent her community well.
“I’ve worked with Hollie long enough to know she’d be a fantastic local member. She’s the kind of person who really cares about the detail and asks all of the right questions, a very switched-on person,” Thain said.
“Hollie’s very outcome-driven and really, really cares about the community in a very big sense. And I know that she’ll give Lindsay a proper go, just like she works her bum off with everything else she sets her mind to.”
The Federal Election has not yet been called by Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, but it is expected to be held before the end of May.
Emily Chate
Emily Chate joined The Western Weekender in 2024, and covers local news - primarily courts and politics. A graduate of the University of Wollongong, Emily has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and worked as a freelance journalist.