"I'm very concerned about a plan here in Hazelwood North that has been approved by the Victorian state government, and I'd like to talk about it. A Chinese company wants to build a lead battery recycling plant right here in this community, and that is deeply worrying. The health impacts of lead, especially on small children, can be devastating. It can lead to mental health problems and irreversible brain damage. But the proposed site of this lead plant is only 1.7 kilometres away from the Hazelwood North Primary School.

These are little children! Some as young as 4. Their brains are still developing. This Chinese company says that they'll keep emissions low, but do we want to take the chance when it's our children at risk? Plus, what do they have to lose from fudging the numbers? After the Hazelwood mine fire, do you know how much the French mine operators were fined? Not even $2 million. They poisoned the Valley, they stuck out the middle finger to our firies when they asked for compensation, and how much were they fined? They're worth nearly 160 billion Euros, for Christ's sake!

For this reason, Latrobe Valley Council rejected it. But you know who approved it? The Victorian Planning Minister. Some pasty faced bureaucrat from Richmond who wouldn't even be able to find the Valley on a map approved a plan that has the potential to be devastating to the Hazelwood North community. Because what happens if lead starts to seep in? No one will want to live in the town with the lead, and rightfully so. Would you want to live here if there's a chance that you and yours could get brain damage from lead? This decision could kill Hazelwood North, and there's a reason that the council here rejected it.

So while other candidates campaign at battery factories, here's my promise. I will do everything in my power as your local MP to stop this from happening. I will work in Canberra with the government to get them to intervene. I will be on the front line here, with you, standing against this destructive project. Because this is a classic example of the worst of government decisions. This was approved by some stuck up Melbourne politician without even an independent environmental impact statement. It was made purely for profit without thinking of the wellbeing of the Hazelwood North community, and sadly those are words that the Latrobe Valley knows all too well — the government's casual cruelty in the name of profit.

We need to send an MP to Canberra who will fight for us, and that's my promise. Because this plan sickens me, and I promise you that I won't let it happen if you make me your local MP. As your MP, I will put this community and all of the communities across Nicholls first, because for too long our communities have been put last. We deserve better. We deserve an MP who cares."