A group of residents in Hume electorate have come together to form 'Voices of Hume' with an aim to talk to people and find out what they want from their politicians.
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The group is holding 'kitchen table conversations' with residents of five Local Government Areas which are Goulburn Mulwaree, Upper Lachlan, Wingecarribee, Wollondilly and Camden.
Matt Murfitt, Voices of Hume co-founder, encourages everyone to join the conversation and says that they are keen to hear about things that are important to people from all walks of life.
"It's an opportunity for people of all political persuasions to share their views in a safe environment. Some people are not comfortable talking about politics for the fear of being attacked by the other side," he said.
"This is a platform where people can come together and speak in a respectful way about their vision for the community or how we can improve our community at local, state and federal level."
The discussion is held usually over a 90-minute long session and residents are asked questions on what they like about where they live, what makes a strong community, what would they like to see preserved or changed in their area and what makes good political leadership.
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The feedback of hundreds of people will be consolidated into a report which will be compiled and released by May this year. The report will be similar to the one created for Voices for Indi which had inputs from over 400 people for Indi.
"We will use the final report to assist independent and consultative party candidates in running at all levels of government in the local LGAs. It includes anyone who wants to run in the upcoming council elections this year, and in the federal and state elections," Mr Murfitt said.
"The idea behind this is to get people into a community-driven political movement with only one mandate that is to share the vision and ideas of the people for the Hume electorate.
"It's a multi-purpose approach about what we are doing at the moment. During the process, we are also building confidence among people that an independent candidate can also win while creating a base for future volunteers for local, federal or state elections and a list of potential donors."
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