NEWS DESK
Election campaign fires up Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au THERE are signs the heat is rising in the battle to win the seat of Frankston at next month’s state election. Firefighters were called out last week to extinguish a fire that destroyed a billboard promoting Liberal candidate Sean Armistead’s campaign to win votes. Frankston CFA firefighter Doug Broom said his crew responded to a call about the burning sign at Beach St at about 9.25pm on Friday 10 October. The flames were quickly extinguished but an anonymous Twitter troll tried to use the incident to provoke a blazing row with Mr Armistead. The Twitter user publicly sent Mr Armstead a message the day after the fire with a photograph of a firefighter at the scene putting the fire out and claimed the Liberal candidate’s campaign is “going up in smoke”. Mr Armistead decided not to fan the online flames by responding to the tweet. “I never respond to negative anonymous tweets, especially those promoting unsafe behaviour and unsavoury politics,” Mr Armistead said. “Although I am always happy to debate a policy or principle with people who are not anonymous and throwing around wild accusations about me.” Mr Broom said the fire was “deemed to be suspicious”. “It looked like it was deliberately set alight,” he said. “It may have been someone with a political point to make but it was just
Greens slam Frankston line commuter crush Chris Brennan chris@baysidenews.com.au
The heat is on: A firefighter extinguishes a fire that destroyed a political billboard for Liberal candidate for Frankston Sean Armistead. Source: Twitter
as likely to be someone who thought it was funny.” Mr Broom said the arson attack “was a potentially harmful prank.” Labor candidate for Frankston Paul Edbrooke is a firefighter based at the CFA’s Frankston station. He condemned the actions of whoever set Mr Armistead’s political billboard alight. “It’s a waste of firefighters’ time and is potentially dangerous,” Mr Edbrooke said. Mr Broom said he did not know who took the photograph circulated on social media that showed a firefighter dealing with the fire. “There were several people passing by with camera phones including the people who called it [the fire] in,” he said.
The person who sent the photograph to Mr Armistead seems to have set up their Twitter account to continually criticise the Liberal Party and Mr Armistead. The account has just 28 followers. Mr Armistead said the temporary loss of the political billboard was the second time that week someone had taken one of his Liberal Party signs out of action. A Karingal Drive billboard was stolen the night before the Beach St sign was set alight. “It’s disappointing but I will replace the sign,” Mr Armistead said. “I hope this is not the start of an underhand dirty tricks campaign.” He said whoever stole the Karingal Drive sign “cut 20 zip ties” and had not left the large billboard nearby.
THE Greens have slammed the Coalition’s efforts to improve travel conditions on the Frankston line after candidates last week joined commuters on peak hour services to experience “severe overcrowding” first hand. Greens candidates across Melbourne last week boarded trains during the evening peak from Flinders Street station to their respective electorates to highlight the scale of overcrowding experienced daily by commuters. The candidates said it took well over 30 minutes on the Frankston line before a seat became available – more than half the journey time. Upper house candidate for the South Eastern Metropolitan Nina Springle said the experience demonstrated just how dire the situation had become for commuters. “The sad truth is that we’ve become desensitised to overcrowding, we think it’s normal and expected, but it shouldn’t be,” Ms Springle said. “But [overcrowding] honestly doesn’t come as a surprise. We’ve knocked on almost 8000 doors in the south east and the top issue that comes up is public transport.” Greens candidate for Frankston Jeanette Swain agreed the train system was in urgent need of upgrade. “This campaign really highlighted how frustrating travel after work can be, when all you really want to do is relax and take a breather,” Ms Swain said. “How can we adequately promote public transport as the best mode of transport when the experience mirrors a
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tin of sardines? It’s not fair to everyday commuters. “The old parties are so out of touch with commuters, and it’s just not good enough.” Ms Springle said both the major parties were attempting to make commuters think that standing for half an hour or more on a train was ‘normal’ and rather than spending billions on projects such as the East West Link, the government should be investing in improving public transport infrastructure and improving those services. “With the balance of power, the Greens will push for improvements to our public transport system,” Ms Springle said. “We’ll push for more trains at busy times, extending peak hour frequency, and an increase in capacity and efficiency through fast-tracking investment in signalling. However, state member for Mordialloc Lorraine Wreford has defended the Coalition’s record in improving conditions for commuters on the Frankston line. Ms Wreford said “ten weekly morning peak train trips” had been added on the Frankston line since the Coalition assumed power in 2010 which had significantly eased overcrowding. “That’s an increase of 8.3 per cent,” Ms Wreford said. “More broadly, we’ve added 191 new Frankston Line services, which means there’s a train every 10 minutes, seven days a week. “Under Labor, 23.2 per cent of trains were overcrowded, and punctuality fell to 62.6 per cent. Now, less than 9 per cent of trains are overcrowded and more than 91.5 per cent are on time.”
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OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Frankston Times 20 October 2014
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