9 April 2022

Mon Mania

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock… while Australia waits for Scott Morrison to visit the Governor-General, we are getting on with it in Kooyong.

Mon Ryan’s express is coming down the track at high speed. In the words of veteran journalist David Crowe, ‘Mon mania’ has come to town as the groundswell of community support continues to grow (‘Greens struggle with teal appeal’, The Age, 8 April).

Our 330 strong door-knocking team has now visited 14,000 homes in Kooyong. They have found warm support for Monique in every corner of the electorate, and we are hearing a lot about climate change, integrity and the ‘cash splash’ budget.

We now have 2000 yard signs up and there are 1800 volunteers and supporters proudly wearing their teal t-shirts around Kooyong.

And this Sunday we are celebrating our 100th flyer team – if you’re near Camberwell junction on Sunday morning drop by to congratulate them on their incredible dedication!

Ready, steady…. go!

While the PM is not ready for an election, we certainly are! So please join us at Monique’s official campaign launch at the Hawthorn Arts Centre on Sunday 10 April, from 3.30pm. Special guest Cathy McGowan will be there to remind us what a truly independent victory could look like.

Do not miss out on this truly historic event. But, hurry! It’s your last chance to register!

Help us make history! Join our campaign launch at Hawthorn Arts Centre, Sunday 10 April at 3.30pm. Entry is free, but bookings are essential. Register now!

Join our vollie crew!

People power is truly the life blood of our campaign, and there’s plenty more to do to share the news about Monique. If you’ve thought about volunteering, but haven’t signed up yet, it’s not too late to join in the fun.

Join a door-knocking crew. Let’s get rapping, people! Every door you knock on is a chance to tell voters what Mon stands for, and what she can do for Kooyong. It’s a lot of fun and last weekend alone, we had requests for 80 new yard signs as a result of conversations on the front porches of Kooyong.

Come to a phone-calling party at HQ. In our door-knocking encounters, we meet people who are undecided about their voting intentions but who are open to hearing more about Monique. Follow-up calls to these folks, as well as to the 4000 apartment dwellers in buildings that we can’t access, are another important way of consulting with our community, learning about their values and concerns, and sharing the news about a new way of doing politics.

It’s not too late to volunteer. Our polling shows that this election will come down to a few hundred votes. We cannot afford to miss a single opportunity to share the news.

Want in? Register now!

Give what you can!

If you can’t donate your time, another great way to help is by donating your money. Unlike the major parties who receive millions in corporate donations, we rely on you – people who want to make a change – to support us. More than 1800 individual donors have already supported Monique’s campaign, helping us to meet and beat our original fund-raising goal.

Your generosity has allowed us to set our targets higher for the final run home. For instance, we have just put in an order for early voting and election day signage at the cost of $14,000, just in case there are any voters who have missed Monique’s yard signs! It seems fitting that our humble yard-sign driven campaign ends with a big splash of teal on election day.

We know that Josh Frydenberg is going to throw everything he has at us over the next four weeks. We can never match that volume of digital advertising or mail outs (four in one week!!), but your donations will help us to keep our flag flying until election day.

Donate now!

Spread the word!

The people close to us have a huge impact on how we see the world. Every conversation you have, every post you share, has an influence on the people who know and trust you.

We know this election will go down to the wire. A few hundred votes may win the day. So everything you do to spread the word counts.

Here are some things you can do over the next few weeks to help our grassroots campaign make it over the line.

Chat with friends about this campaign.
Share this email with other motivated folks.
Order a sign for your yard.
Take a picture in your campaign T-Shirt, and post it on the socials.
Post a link to our donation page
Buy some campaign merch and wear your support around town!

Don’t forget to tag your posts #Mon4Kooyong. Keep sharing the love!

Note from Mon

Dear all,

In my conversations with the Kooyong community, so many of you remember and admire Petro Georgiou, the former Liberal MP for Kooyong (1994-2010) who took a principled stand on behalf of asylum seekers and crossed the floor to oppose offshore detention.

Like so many of you, I was inspired by Petro’s courage and integrity. And like so many of you, I have been disappointed by the deplorable treatment of asylum seekers and refugees by both sides of politics in this country.

Australia is a generous country which has always welcomed refugees. Since WWII, we have settled more than 850,000 people fleeing from persecution, torture and war. These refugees have made Australia home, and their contribution has benefited all of us.

But our humanitarian intake has dropped in recent years. This week I called on the government to do better, and to honour our proud tradition of providing safe haven and the promise of a new life to people in times of crisis.

We currently accept nearly 14,000 people annually through our refugee and humanitarian program. We should increase that number by 50 percent to 21,000.

There are nearly 30,000 refugees on Temporary Protection Visas (TPV) living and working in the community. These people have fled war and persecution in places like Afghanistan, Iran and Syria. However they live in limbo because the government forces them to reapply for a TPV every three years. They are not allowed to apply for family reunions, and they cannot risk returning to visit their homelands.

They live in an endless cycle of uncertainty. We are harming people who have fled from harm. This is not what Australians stand for. We can do better.

If elected, I would work hard to ensure that these genuine refugees are given Permanent Residency in Australia. That way they can get on with their lives with certainty and be reunited with their family members.

Stay well and I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday at our launch,

Monique

Tote-ally awesome and Paw-fectly poochy!

Want to wear our Team Mon Teal around town, but not really a T-Shirt or cap person?

Our good-looking tote bag is just the ticket. Take it on your next shopping trip! Or on your next dog walk! Teal is easy to find when you’re dashing out the door.

And while you’re walking that cute pooch, why not accessorise with our stylish dog bandana? It’s really the pawfect way to stand out from the pack this election season.

Don’t forget to post some pics and tag #Mon4Kooyong! We live for the cute puppy snaps.

Stocks are extremely limited. So grab your tote or dog bandana before they run out!