Thank you to Lighter Footprints for putting on last night’s candidates forum. It was disappointing that Jess Wilson didn’t turn up. She is the local member for Kew and the Leader of the Opposition, and the people in that room were her constituents. Showing up to answer questions from the community is a basic part of the job, especially five weeks out from an election. One thing stuck with me from the conversations afterwards. Quite a few people told me they weren’t sure what the Upper House is, and several thought I was running for the Senate. Fair enough, nobody teaches this stuff. So here’s the short version: the Senate is federal. Victoria has its own Upper House, the Legislative Council, and it reviews every law the state government wants to pass. On 28 November you get two ballot papers: a small one for your local MP in the Lower House, and a large one for the Legislative Council. I’m on the large one, for Southern Metropolitan Region. Independents in the Upper House aren’t there to block things for the sake of it. We’re there to read the fine print, ask the questions and make sure whoever forms government is held to account. That’s what I’ll be doing if you send me there.