One of Australia's most respected journalists, Michelle Grattan, AO, has agreed to moderate a debate in Goulburn between candidates for the Hume electorate in this year's federal election.
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The forum will be hosted by community action group The Goulburn Group (TGG) with support from the Goulburn Post on a date that will be set when the election, expected in May, is announced.
Renowned for the fairness of her political coverage, Ms Grattan is chief political correspondent for The Conversation and professorial fellow at Canberra University.
She is a former editor of the Canberra Times and, in a career reporting on every government since Gough Whitlam's in the 1970s, has worked as political correspondent for The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review.
Candidates who have announced they are contesting Hume to date are sitting Liberal MP Angus Taylor, Independent Penny Ackery, Labor's Greg Baines and the United Australia Party's Garry Dollin.
TGG-founder and President Urs Walterlin stressed that the event will be governed by strict rules to guarantee fairness to all candidates.
The terms set for the debate include that each candidate will have equal speaking time, with the opportunity to make brief opening and closing remarks and to answer questions from the floor.
"Questions will not be submitted to the candidates beforehand. Voters will have the opportunity to ask the candidates during the event," Mr Walterlin said.
Mr Taylor, the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction, is seeking his fourth term as the member for Hume. In the last election, he won 53.3 per cent of first preference votes and 63 per cent after preferences.
Former federal Labor Party campaign director and senator Bob McMullan recently identified the Hume electorate as one of the traditionally safe Liberal seats that could fall to an Independent.
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