LABOR has announced its candidate for Indi at the eleventh hour of the 2025 Federal Election being called.

Mitch Bridges, a 30-year-old social worker who has lived in Wodonga all of his life, announced his candidacy on Thursday.

Mr Bridges has been a member of the North East branch of the Labor Party since 2021 and he will take on incumbent Independent Helen Haines and Liberal candidate James Trenery in vying for the seat.

“I’m very keen to get out and about and in my work I work very closely to another organisation in Wangaratta, so I am across some of the real dire stuff that is lacking in Wangaratta," Mr Bridges said.

“Community services across the board are in a tight spot right now.

“In terms of family violence, we’ve made some strides but the mission needs to continue.”

Mr Bridges said he likes some of what Dr Haines has done during her tenure because she has voted the way of Labor on numerous occasions.

“However, she has voted against Labor and she can’t make up her mind whether she supports policy like compulsory income management or not," he said.

“She’s voted against abolishing the ABCC (Australian Building and Construction Commission) and I know there are loaded opinions about that but a very pro-worker MP wouldn’t have voted against that.

“I’ve seen while working in community services the power that a party of government has, and it’s all well and good that Helen can sit and vote for it, that’s great and we’d much prefer her than someone who is going to vote against everything, but at the end of the day systemic change comes from a party of government.”

Bringing down the cost of living is something Mr Bridges wants to get behind and he noted Labor’s $8.5 million Medicare policy, which includes increasing access to GP bulk-billing, as a way to alleviate household costs.

“What we’ve done already is targeted support and we’re supporting young families in public schools, PBS changes, and urgent care clinics - which is a state policy as well - and the biggest increase to rent assistance in some time,” he said.

“These are deflationary measures and at the end of the day inflation is at the core of the high cost of living.

“We’ve made some smart choices and there are probably more smart choices we can make next term.

“When Labor took over in 2022 there were a lot of systems failing and the ship we had to navigate was ‘where do we start’.

“I feel like we’ve done a great job of that so far, but we need to continue in government to continue the job.”

Indi has been held by an Independent since Cathy McGowan beat then Liberal incumbent Sophie Mirabella at the 2013 election.

Dr Haines has served two terms as MP for Indi since being elected in 2019.