Langley commits to local campaign

by Courtney O'Brien

Drouin resident Jannette Langley, a self-confessed "squeaky wheel," is running for the seat of Narracan as the Australian Labor Party candidate.

Ms Langley ran for the upper house in the last state election and for a federal seat prior to that for Gippsland. She also has thrown her hat in as a candidate for a couple of council elections.
Joining the ALP about 12 years ago after leaving her job as a public servant, Ms Langley said "I've had the experience running before, I'm fairly heavily involved in the Labor Party. So, I thought, why not? I'm putting my hand up."
"I was always a unionist. I've always been a unionist. That's why it's Labor."
Ms Langley's priorities are fighting for the growing Narracan community and advocating for more funding for infrastructure, alongside the Baw Baw and Cardinia councils.
"We are a very fast-growing area, and I think I need to be the voice in there that fights for those things that we need in our area."
"I'd be advocating it within the State Government.
"I think Gippsland as a whole isn't on the map. You hear about Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong, even Shepparton is now getting mentioned. Gippsland doesn't get a mention."
When campaigning, Ms Langley said she liked to visit smaller towns and hear from the community preferably in the pub or coffee shop.
She has been called, by another politician, a "Bob Hawke campaigner."
"I want to be able to talk to the people in the Yarragons, the Trafs, the Neerims, the Walhallas - all of those sort of towns. I want to be able to get out and talk to the locals, to the ones that have lived here all their life and hear what they have to say, because I think that's important."
Listening to the community, looking at community priorities and needs and taking those views back to the party, to government ministers and advisors, is also one of Ms Langley's campaign aims.
"I like to think I'm straightforward. I will listen to anyone. It doesn't matter who you are. I will listen to you."
"I'm a person of few words. I listen more than I speak, but when I need to speak, I speak."
Ms Langley believes she can uplift trust in the ALP by demonstrating what they have done, what they've got in the budget to do and getting what's in the budget done.