WE can only hope that candidates for the May 2 Legislative Council elections spice up their campaigns with a resolve to join the battle against unemployment.
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Economic development is the best pursuit of any politician. The Northern seat of Windermere includes pockets of the worst affected unemployment areas in the state.
Youth unemployment in the region hovers around 17 per cent. In the more economically depressed areas such as George Town and Rocherlea the figure would be far worse.
Labor has endorsed community worker Jennifer Houston and the Greens on Sunday endorsed lawyer Vanessa Bleyer, to challenge incumbent Ivan Dean who has held Windermere since 2003.
Upper House elections are a low pecking order on the political calendar and, unlike the House of Assembly, candidates are constrained by a campaign cap of $15,000, a unique feature which can only benefit incumbents.
The Greens have woven jobs growth into their narrative and this is a welcome acknowledgement by them of economic imperatives, if it is more than just campaign rhetoric.
Windermere has an intriguing mixture of an industrial heartland at George Town and the Bell Bay industrial estate, abutting the famous wine routes. Both sectors offer prospects for economic development and jobs.
The Legislative Council's constitutional role is one of an upper house of review. The best form of welfare, in this welfare dependent region is and always will be a job.
Disappointingly the Liberal Party is not standing a candidate. What must its Windermere members think?
Whoever wins the seat ought to remember that no matter what their philosophical approach, the prospect of work for those demoralised souls out of work, is by far the best outcome for their region they could ever achieve.