With one month until polling day,the committee agreed to select a candidate rather than hold a local preselection and will make that decision on Monday.
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The decision was backed by Opposition Leader John Pesutto.
“We want to give the people of Mulgrave an alternative,” he said. “On November 18 the people of Mulgrave will have a choice between a tired Labor government or a new direction for Victoria.”
Hairdresser Michael Piastrino,who unsuccessfully ran as the Liberal Party’s Mulgrave candidate in 2022,is expected to put himself forward as a candidate. Piastrino’s campaign imploded when he was forced toapologise for accusing Andrews of “the murder of 800 people” stemming from hotel quarantine leaks.
Local Liberal member Jeff Kidney was being encouraged to submit an application on Friday.
The Greens’ candidate is Dandenong councillor Rhonda Garad and the Victorian Socialists will put forward Kelly Cvetkova.
Political strategists from both Labor and the Liberal Party have privately questioned whether Cook will attract the same level of support and attention following Andrews’ resignation,but believe his preferences will be key to deciding the result.
On Friday,Cook said he would not make a decision about preferences until after the Liberal Party confirmed its candidate.
“Andrews and Labor promised they’d stick out the term in Mulgrave and they haven’t,” he said.
“I don’t carry baggage from either party and I understand both sides and I think this is a good chance for the people of Mulgrave to maybe have a crack at an independent.”
In August,Cook’s lawyer told the Supreme Court that Sutton had acted outside his powers as chief health officer and destroyed Cook’s business – I Cook Foods – by prematurely ordering its closure.
The Dandenong South food supplierwas forced to close in February 2019 after health officials determined it had provided food to 86-year-old Knox Private Hospital patient Jean Painter,who later died from a listeria infection.
Cook is yet to find out whether he has been successful in his multimillion dollar bid but a spokesperson for Department of Health said legal costs incurred by the government would “largely” be covered by insurers.
Cook said his legal team expected a result in his case against the Department of Health and Human Services between November and February – after the Mulgrave preselection.
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Shadow health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the legal fees were an example of “Labor’s waste and mismanagement”.
“It seems the government will go to any lengths,including wasting over one and a half million dollars of taxpayers’ money,to hide the truth about what really happened,” she said.