Liberal candidates target Geelong, Bellarine foreshore

A Belmont nursery operator has won the Liberal party’s approval to take on Labor’s Ian Trezise in the state seat of Geelong in this year’s Victorian election.
Alastair Thomson, 36, said he was hopeful of achieving a swing of more than eight per cent to take back the seat, which Mr Trezise seized from the Liberals in 1999.
A swing of more than 12 per cent to the Liberals in a western Melbourne by-election on the weekend has raised the party’s hopes of winning back Geelong and neighbouring South Barwon, a former Liberal stronghold lost to the party in 2002.
A father of one, Mr Thomson has run Glastonbury Garden Centre for the past 11 years.
He put transport, education, water security, crime and small business high on his priorities list.
Mr Thomson also declared a “passion for the environment”.
“I will work hard to get a better deal for the people of Geelong,” he said.
Meanwhile, his Liberal counterpart campaigning for Bellarine – another seat lost to the party in 2002 – has vowed a shake-up of foreshore management.
Kurt Reiter wanted to “overhaul, not abolish” Bellarine Bayside Foreshore Committee.
He said “likely changes” under a Liberal government would include making meeting attendance mandatory for the committee’s Department of Sustainability and Environment representative and adding selection criteria to prevent conflicts of interest on the committee.
Mr Reiter said he had spoken to more than 100 residents about the committee and attended its most recent meeting.