With a last name made for politics, Glenn Goodfellow is getting ready for the uphill battle he faces as the Liberal candidate in the safe Labor seat of Tarneit.

Goodfellow grew up in Hoppers Crossing and attended MacKillop College, a prominent school in the area.

“How would I describe the place I’ve lived in for 50 years? It’s basically a very good place to live,” says Goodfellow.

“I love the area that I live in. I’m a local (volunteer firefighter) with the CFA, my wife was a former captain of the CFA, so I’m entrenched in the community that I live in,” Goodfellow says.

Goodfellow has been involved in the local council since before the turn of the century. He ran for Wyndham City Council back in the early nineties, and was not successful. He then ran again in 2005 to the same outcome.

“Three years later in 2008 I ran and was successful… I then re-ran again, and I was re-elected,” Goodfellow says.

In 2016 Goodfellow was found guilty of violating the Local Government Act and Councillor Code of Conduct by an independent external investigator.

Speaking to The Wyndham Leader in 2016, Goodfellow said that the complaint against him was referring to an incident where he “called a councillor a name”. He also called the complaint “petty” and “frivolous.”

The independent external investigator found that Goodfellow had breached sections which relate to respectful conduct towards other councillors and their opinions.

“In the last council elections just gone I decided I’d had enough and wanted to concentrate on other things,” says Mr Goodfellow, mentioning he wanted to spend more time with his wife Colleen and daughters.

But that didn’t last long. When the Andrews Government announced plans to build a prison in the area, Mr Goodfellow took an active lead role in the campaign to get it moved. That attention led to him being preselected for the Liberal Party to represent Tarneit.

“Yes, I am a member of the Liberal party and it’s going to be a big ask out here to actually change the seat from Labor to Liberal. However, I am a local.”

Before becoming a Wyndham councillor, Goodfellow had worked in the financial sector as a paraplanner and a superannuation officer, before joining his wife’s family’s local tourism business.

If elected, Goodfellow aims to focus on infrastructure, public transport, housing, schools and ‘basic services’.

“The biggest issues would be the same issues that have been there for the past eight years when I was a councillor and the deputy mayor of the City of Wyndham,” says Goodfellow.

He also comments on traffic congestion, noting that it’s shocking. “For a trip that used to take 20 minutes into the city, it took me the other day an hour and forty minutes.”

“If I could, I’d actually represent the people of Tarneit for nothing because I love my community and I want to see it flourish.”

“I want to see it grow. I walk the same streets the voters do, I shop at the same shopping centres. My kids go to school here, and I went to school here. I’m entrenched here. Tarneit is home,” says Goodfellow.

“At the end of the day I am here because I love my community, I am part of this community, and I want the opportunity to represent this community. And that’s all I’m asking from people – the opportunity.”