I’m David Hutchings, and I’m running for Bendigo West because I love this community, and I’ve watched it be taken for granted for too long.

I’m not a career politician. I’m a Bendigo local who spent nearly 30 years as a Chartered Accountant, most of it as a partner in a local firm, helping regional towns keep their banks, their services and their futures alive. Working with the numbers for that long teaches you how budgets really work, where money gets wasted, and how to rein in debt, skills this state badly needs right now.

But you’re just as likely to find me on a fire truck.  I’ve been a volunteer with the CFA for close to 30 years,s attending more than 1,200 incidents with the Lockwood Brigade. I drive these roads every day. When a hospital loses a service or a road waits years for a repair, I feel it too, because I live here.

I’ve spent my life turning up for this community, not just talking about it. And I’m putting my hand up now because Bendigo West deserves someone who knows it from the inside — and who’ll fight to make sure our region finally gets the fair share it’s owed.