Like a virgin: voting for the very first time

Another election, but this time I  will be voting.

I have lived in the Liberal electorate of Dunkley for my entire life, but this is the closest margin it has been in over 20 years (1.1 per cent). I do not know anything about any of the candidates, but they have a huge impact on the future of Dunkley.

This large electorate spans from Frankston to Mornington to Langwarrin and has many voters who do not even know they play a big part in the 2013 election. The seat of Dunkley has been Liberal seat since I was born in 1993.

So, what do I vote for? Kevin Rudd who looks like Mr Sheen and does IAMAs or Tony Abbott who could make a scrapbook of all the times he has been photographed in a speedo.

But it should not be about the leaders, or how close the margin is. It should be about the candidates and what they will bring to the area.

This is a first-time voter trying to get the facts on each of my candidates and how they plan to change Frankston and the Nation.

In the first corner, we had Bruce Billson, who has been the MP since 1996. For 17 years of my life, he has had power over my town of Langwarrin.  But all he wants is a great interview like the famously awkward Mila Kunis interview.

Nothing really bad has happened to Langwarrin and there have been a few improvements to  the primary school and the area, so I suppose I cannot complain about what he has done over the years. He plans to put in a Men’s Shed, which I guess will not really bring in the female voters, but go males.

Sonya Kilkenny is the Labor candidate for Dunkley as well as a lawyer, mum and wife. She ran a great campaign according to her Facebook page which talks about people running up to her hugging or saying, “We’ve been waiting 17 years for our Labor candidate to knock on our door! And now, here you are!”

Cautious steps need to be taken to avoid being swept up into thoughts like, “Oh, I can’t believe Kevin Rudd went to my old primary school!” or “Oh, I see Sonya Kilkenny’s face everywhere, so it must mean she will have a good influence on my electorate!”

But, she did reply to my Facebook message pretty quickly telling me more about how she plans to fix Frankston hospital, increasing local jobs and creating a trade training centre in Langwarrin to help students with their career direction and aren’t interested in university. Which to me, sounds better than a Men’s Shed.

Then there is the Green’s Candidate, Simon Tiller. Bruce Billson might put Simon last on the list of preferences when telling me how to vote and it has been hard to find out any information on him, but when I did the ABC vote compass I found out that the policies I prefer are those favoured by the Greens. So, I guess my vote is decided for me by the ABC.

Then there is the Palmer United Party which is a new addition to this election and seems to be made up of “real-life candidates” according to their site, instead of career politicians.

Politically I am not very conservative and the two thumbs up Clive Palmer advertising I see while on the Frankston train unnerves me, but Kate Ryder is a single mother like mine, so that is a point for the party.

I could not find many of the Palmer United Party or the Family First Party’s policies, but I found a few of the Family First’s values. Their values didn’t relate to me too much, because I am a student with a “non-traditional” family.

But I can definitely see many conservatives giving their vote to Family First.

Then there are the Independents, who have usually been residents of the area for quite a long time and have contributed a lot to community during this time.

The candidates are Roy Broff and Rod Burt. And I do not know too much about either of them, but Independents are a great vote if I want to move away from the “politics” and “parties” of voting.

Yvonne Gentle from Rise Up Australia has a huge bio about how she raised more for charity than her school collectively in her first year of high school.

But when reading some of Rise-Up Australia’s 26 Policy Principles to see what “Keep Australia Australian” I was a little confused on what they meant. But articles call them the anti-Islam party and their third policy reads “specifically we oppose multiculturalism”. Personally, this does not sit right with me, because I love how many cultures are incorporated into Australian culture. And as someone who has a family that moved from Czech Republic and managed to build a home without knowing any English, an accepting and patient country is what I am for.

Eloise Palmi dressed up as wonderwoman and having wonderwoman with power over Dunkley is quite tempting. She also believes legalising euthanasia, abortion and same-sex marriage are there to strengthen Australians’ rights, not hamper them.

These are the sort of issues I think the government should not intervene in, because they are personal issues. So, it would be great to stop wasting time with matters that should be left up to the people and focus on the bigger issues. So all the power to you wonderwoman!

After doing the research, I  will vote. I am not going to tell you the order, but I will tell you that it was more interesting learning about what I was voting for, rather than voting for the person or the party.