[box]A lot of what is said in State Parliament never gets reported beyond Hansard, the official record. One of the more intriguing speeches that passed unnoticed was by Labor MP Don Nardella, who gave his assessment of the in-fighting and chaos within the local branch of the Liberal Party leading up to the South West Coast by-election.

If you want a take on what really went on, this is it.[/box]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] M [/dropcap]r NARDELLA (Melton) — Today I grieve for the good people in the electorates of Polwarth and South-West Coast for having to undertake a by-election due to the resignations of Mr Mulder and Mr Napthine. These two by-elections are quite bizarre. Let me start. We had, ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, can you get me a seat in Parliament please?’ from Tom Napthine, asking his daddy to propel him into Parliament to replace him in South-West Coast. Tom Napthine stood for preselection. Unfortunately he did not get it, because the whole preselection process was quite bizarre, including the intervention of Mr Michael Kroger.

Mr J. Bull — Oh!

Mr NARDELLA — Yes, Michael Kroger; it was extremely bizarre. He had a go at the preselection. I will explain what I am talking about. About 18 months ago, Michael Neoh joined the Liberal Party in South-West Coast. He was the anointed one to replace Denis Napthine, and he was supported by Denis Napthine. Everything was set up. Michael Neoh was a councillor, and he represented the people of Warrnambool. He was in all the photos with Mr Napthine. He was Mr Napthine’s bestie — they were joined at the hip for 18 months. These two gentlemen had cheesy smiles, and they were synchronised every time they smiled. They gloated at each other. They were best of friends but then Exhibition Street stepped in — that is, Liberal Party headquarters in the middle of Melbourne.

Michael Kroger, the president, the saviour of the Liberal Party, decrees a couple of weeks before the close of nominations that there has to be a woman preselected for South-West Coast because the Liberal Party does not have enough women in the Parliament. That is absolutely true. Michael Neoh was snookered. He had spent 18 months in the party. They are very loyal, these people in the Liberal Party. He had a massive 18 months in the Liberal Party because he was the anointed one. He had the cap and the baton. Denis was running behind him and putting the baton to him, and he grabbed the baton. Then Michael Kroger whacked it out of his hand. He could no longer have the baton, and he was snookered by the people in Melbourne. He was absolutely going to lose. He was done for. What did he do?

He did not even nominate for the Liberal Party. He did not even put in his form because he knew that he was done over by the city folk on Exhibition Street. So much for democracy — this is a long-term member of the Liberal Party. He was in there for 18 months! He is nearly a lifer — he had nearly been in there for life — but he has been snookered. What happened next? The Leader of The Nationals went, ‘Knock, knock, knock. Michael, we want you. You’ve been so loyal to the Liberal Party and they’ve knocked you off. You’ve been in there for 18 months. We will have you now’. What did Michael Neoh do? He said, ‘Thank you very much. I’ll be your bestie now, Leader of The Nationals, and you’ll be my bestie. That naughty Denis Napthine — we don’t want him anymore. I want to be to be in the National Party’. So he has become The Nationals candidate for South-West Coast and we have this immense chasm — this division, this animosity — between the two parties.

 The ex-Premier of Victoria, Denis Napthine — this bloke who was going to save the Liberal Party after the disaster of the two and a half years of the Baillieu premiership in this state — was then steamrolled by the Melbourne-centric head office. His hand-picked candidate was poached by the VicNats, or the National Party, or the Country Nationals or whatever they call themselves today; they are still trying to make up their minds about where they are going. That is when Tom Napthine stepped in. He said, ‘Daddy, please give me a seat. I really want to be a member of Parliament. I am so loyal to the Liberal Party. I have just joined, so please, Daddy, please, Denis, make me a member of Parliament’, but the former Premier could not do that either because Michael Kroger said it had to be a woman.

This stalwart of the Liberal Party, Tom Napthine, had actually paid his money to become a member of the Liberal Party the day that he put in his nomination form — and he probably paid his own money — but he was snookered as well. He could not get his daddy’s seat anymore. It gets more bizarre. A woman candidate had to be preselected because Mr Kroger, the doyen of Toorak, had decreed that the candidate for South-West Coast, for Portland and Warrnambool, had to be a woman.

The Liberal Party had one in the field. She was very experienced. She had been a member of Parliament and a country mayor, so she had represented country Victoria not only in the local council but also in the Parliament. This is a bit bizarre. She was actually a long-time member of the Liberal Party. It was not just a case of her saying, ‘I’ve paid because I want preselection’, or ‘I paid 18 months ago because I am the anointed one’. This woman was a long-time member of the Liberal Party, but unfortunately she was not wanted; Michael Kroger did not want her. Donna Petrovich, the perennial candidate, was dumped.

Ms Spence — The failed candidate.

Mr NARDELLA — The failed candidate, the perennial candidate, was dumped, so they had to find another woman who had to beat Donna Petrovich in preselection. They had no-one locally, so those opposite went out and talked about how the Liberal Party is the biggest volunteer organisation in Australia. They got this woman, Roma Britnell. Was she a long-time member of the Liberal Party? Before she put in a form for preselection she actually had to join the Liberal Party! This loyal member of the Liberal Party had to join the party before she could actually run for preselection. She joined to become a parliamentarian. She tried to get on a farmer board to increase her off-farm income but was not successful. Now there was an opportunity.

I will tell you a secret, Speaker, about why she wants to become the member for South-West Coast. She wants the off-farm income. That is right; she went for a position on a board but did not get it, and this is her way of getting that off-farm income. She is only after the money. Further, she was not even wanted by the local members of the Liberal Party. There were the three councillors who had knocked off Michael Neoh from Warrnambool City Council, but the Warrnambool branch of the Liberal Party supported the country person out there. She might be the perennial candidate but she is a hard worker, Donna Petrovich —

Ms Edwards — Who?

Mr NARDELLA — Yes, ‘Who?’. We know who she is; she was a member of this Parliament. However, the good people of the Warrnambool branch did not want Roma Britnell at all; they wanted Donna, but she got knocked off by the city-centric Melbourne head office of the Liberal Party. Who are The Nationals running for these two seats? Mr O’Brien is running.

Ms Edwards — Not another O’Brien!

Mr NARDELLA — Yes, David O’Brien. He used to be in the upper house. This bloke ran for the South-West Coast electorate at the 2006 election. He went really well. The Nationals vote in South-West Coast in 2006 dropped by 7.3 per cent! That is how bad this bloke was. They did not even want him. Later he got into the upper house, but he was defeated by one of the following three groups: the Shooters and Fishers Party, Vote 1 Local Jobs or the Greens political party. He was not even good enough as a standing Nationals member to get re-elected.

Why is David now running for Polwarth? Because The Nationals have lost party status. As a bit of a refresher for members, you need 11 members in this house and the other house to have party status, but The Nationals party is on the nose. These are the people who do not believe that country townships and cities should be joined up with water pipelines and channels, like the super-pipe to both Bendigo and Ballarat.

The Nationals leader opposed the super-pipe to Ballarat during the 13-year drought. He wanted everybody to leave Ballarat and Bendigo. That is the lunacy of The Nationals, and that lunacy meant that in Shepparton they actually lost a seat after the intervention of federal Nationals member Barnaby Joyce. He went to SPC and said, ‘That’s a Liberal Party problem for Sharman Stone from the Liberal Party to deal with. I’m from The Nationals party. I don’t want anything to do with saving SPC. It’s irrelevant to me’.

That is the reason the member for Shepparton is in this Parliament today. The Nationals are just hopeless. They do not represent country Victoria whatsoever. There has been a reversal of roles. The Liberals have preselected a farmer candidate, and The Nationals have preselected a city candidate. We see a war between the Liberal Party and The Nationals. When Robert Doyle became the Leader of the Opposition back in 2002 he said, ‘Hang onto your hats!’Remember that? And we are all hanging onto our hats because of the division between the Liberal Party and The Nationals. They might all skip down the road holding hands, but the division is there and it is real. They have running partners, they have dummies, out there at South-West Coast. They really are concerned about losing that seat to an Independent. Swampy is running out there at the moment. (An honourable member interjected).

Mr NARDELLA — From Oddball. I reckon Swampy would be a fantastic member of Parliament. He would come in here without any fear or favour and represent those good people of South-West Coast. If they make it marginal and get rid of the Liberals, who have done nothing for years, then they might have a chance. That is why I grieve.

• Reproduced from Hansard, Victorian Legislative Assembly, October 9, 2015.

Comment – Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] T [/dropcap]here is a great line floating around about the South West Coast by-election this Saturday (Oct 31) – don’t keep voting the same way and expect things to be different!

Yet so many south-west Victorians do just that: keep voting the same party back in year after year and then complain that things don’t change.

You only need to look around our beautiful corner of the world to see the hazards of living in a super safe seat and when it comes to the condition of our roads they are, quite literally, hazardous.

The roads are dreadful and the train service is old and inadequate.

The local job market – especially for young people – is shrinking as traditional industries close down or dry up, with few adequate replacements.

Portland should have, by now, been sitting at the forefront of the state’s renewable energy industry, but has been hamstrung by the poor policies of the conservative parties at both a state and federal level.

Our key tertiary institutions, South West TAFE and Deakin University, are struggling to either get back on their feet (as in the case of TAFE which was gutted under the Napthine Government) or to keep upright, as in the case of Deakin-Warrnambool.

Warrnambool used to be a humming university town: it is no longer, as bit by bit tertiary courses are shut down, relocated, or moved online.

Mainstreet is struggling, shops sit empty and fibs are told – such as the fib about the number of jobs that would come from a largely automated powdered milk factory and cold store in Merrivale – to make it look like change is happening.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] T [/dropcap]he people living in the south-west are not suckers, yet every election that comes along, be it state or federal, I believe we act that way.

We forget all that has gone before and fall for the glossy, big-faced posters that are strung up on fences, even if, in the case of Michael Neoh, they only joined their party (the Nationals) minutes after it became clear they were not wanted by their first party (the Liberals).

Or we are bombarded by advertising from deep-pocketed parties like the Liberals, who have long treated this seat like a personal fiefdom.

And, sure enough, the same party wins each time, and nothing actually changes.

So the roads get lumpier and bumpier, the old train with its old carriages still runs late, and more young people slip into a zone where they leave school, jobs are harder to find and things like “ice” become a way out of reality.

This Saturday, things can be different.

We can make a change – a real change – by voting for an independent, and that independent is Warrnambool legal aid lawyer Roy Reekie.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] B [/dropcap]luestone is backing Roy for this election because we believe he has the experience, commitment and creative thinking needed to put the south-west back on the electoral map.

We want to live in an electorate that is no longer taken for granted, and attracts as much attention from Spring St as the other marginal seats around Victoria. As an independent, Roy can make a lot of noise and he can make it now – not stuck on the Opposition benches.

Roy has a range of creative and interesting ideas (you can read more on his by-election Facebook page and his open letter to voters) and, above all, he has shown a unbendable commitment to representing this corner of the world – even at his own expense.

Why else would anyone run five times against formidable odds?

The odds are still formidable – former Liberal Premier Denis Napthine pushed the seat out to an 11 per cent margin – but we are hoping that, this time, the south-west is ready to back a different runner in Roy Reekie and come home a real winner.

[box]A forum featuring all candidates will be held at the Lighthouse Theatre, W’bool, tomorrow (Monday Oct 26) at 7pm. The candidates are: Roy Reekie (independent), Thomas Campbell (The Greens), Roma Britnell (Liberal), Michael Neoh (Nationals), Michael McCluskey (independent), Swampy Marsh (independent), Pete Smith (independent), Jim Doukas (Country Party), Rodney Van De Hoef (independent), Jennifer Gamble (Animal Justice Party), Lillian Len (Australian Christians).[/box]

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Michael McCluskey on education

Roy Reekie on rail

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By-election: Are we on a road to nowhere?

[box]ROY REEKIE is running as an independent in the by-election for South West Coast. Here he writes about improving the rail service:[/box]

[quote]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] I[/dropcap]n what’s been a confusing by-election so far, we have our first certainty. The South West will get its extra daily train service.

Last Wednesday, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy stood at Warrnambool station, flanked by a bank of dark suits, to announce that ‘a Coalition government’ would introduce a fourth daily service from Warrnambool; that is, IF the Coalition is elected back into government in 2018 or some election beyond. That’s not much of a guarantee. There are too many ifs and too much waiting.

I can go one better.

If I’m elected as your independent member for South West Coast on 31 October, I  guarantee that we will have an additional daily train service out of Warrnambool by this time next year.

I will also work with the community and the government to reform our train service to improve comfort, reliability, frequency and guaranteed, no excuses inclusion of people with mobility issues. I will make the train service safer and more convenient for  older people and young families. I will work on the government and the opposition to achieve a long term infrastructure investment plan for track upgrades and duplications so that our future rail services are faster, more comfortable and modern.  This is what’s required; not just a promise of an additional train here and there.

How will I do this? On Wednesday next week , I will announce my comprehensive rail policy at Warrnambool station just prior to the lunchtime train. Then, you need to vote on October 31 to make South West Coast marginal. If I’m elected, I’ll take it from there and deliver what we need.

I welcome the Coalition’s commitment to an extra train service. I don’t think it goes far enough or will happen soon enough, but I welcome it. And I say this to Mr Guy and Mr Walsh: if I’m elected, I expect your full support on the floor of the Parliament on this issue.

Roy Reekie

Ferguson Street Warrnambool.

(PO Box 882 Warrnambool 3280

Facebook: Roy Reekie, Independent candidate for South West Coast)

[box]Independent candidate for the up coming South-West Coast by-election, MICHAEL McCLUSKEY, has publicly endorsed the push for same sex marriage equality. He explains more here:[/box]

[quote]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #8F9F59;”] I [/dropcap]strongly believe in the right of individuals who identify as being attracted to partners of the same sex to be given the freedom to publicly express their relationship commitment with each other via the institution of marriage if they should choose to do so.

Anyone with a sound working knowledge of brain science (neuroscience) and the ever expanding field of epigenetics, which deals with the expression and function of our genes, would understand that brain function does not fit neatly into a handful of ‘boxes’.

There are many normal and varied patterns of behavioural expressions along the complex spectrum of brain functioning and human individuality. This includes normal variations in sexual identity and expression.  Like many other human traits, sexual attraction does not fit neatly within a ‘single label’ and both ‘same’ and ‘opposite’ sex attraction have equal validity.

Society is in an ever-evolving state in relation to our tendency to want to ‘pathologise’ human differences between individual members within a community. Thankfully we are slowly becoming better at embracing our differences be they of a sexual, racial, ethnic or religious nature. Not so long ago we physically punished a child for being left handed. Thankfully that belief lives in the past. How much longer will it be before some of our antiquated beliefs about same sex couples are also left to the history books?

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #8F9F59;”] A [/dropcap]ustralian society has travelled a long path in its relationship with sexual identity.

It was not so long ago we were imprisoning people who were in same sex relationships. Even as late as the 1970’s psychiatry was still labelling same sex attraction as an abnormality. Psychiatry’s DSM, the ‘bible’ of psychiatric disorders, which is drawn up by some of the greatest medical minds in the world, was still labelling same sex attraction as a mental illness that needed medical intervention to help ‘cure’ it.

Thankfully today the level of acceptance within society towards same sex couples has come a along way from those well meaning but very ill-informed social, religious and scientific dogmas.

The current scientific research is quite clear on same sex attraction. Same-sex attraction, orientation and behaviour is a healthy variant along the normal spectrum of human sexuality.

The American Psychological Association Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation in 2009 clearly states that ‘The research and clinical literature demonstrate that same-sex sexual and romantic attractions, feelings, and behaviours are normal and positive variations of human sexuality, regardless of sexual orientation identity. There is a growing body of evidence concluding that sexual stigma, manifested as prejudice and discrimination directed at non-heterosexual sexual orientations and identities, is a major source of stress for sexual minorities. This stress, known as minority stress, is a factor in mental health disparities found in some sexual minorities.’

The Australian Psychological Association also states that it ‘supports full marriage equality for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, on human rights, health and wellbeing grounds and that the most important family factors for children’s well-being are family processes and the quality of interactions and relationships, not family structures (like having a mother and a father).’

I believe the quality of love a child receives is the ultimate determinate of their future emotional, mental and physical health and this quality is not defined by the gender of the care giver. Our economic potential is also intimately linked to the quality of love we receive in childhood.

The current political approach to same sex equality might best be characterised by paraphrasing an old quote: “Sometimes the longest journey a politician undertakes is the one from their head to their heart”.

Dr Michael McCluskey B.V.Sc. (Hons.)

Independent Candidate

South-West Coast electorate

(8 Megan Ct, W’bool.)

Comment – Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] H[/dropcap]aving dipped out of the Liberal pre-selection race for the South West coast by-election, Warrnambool City Council Mayor Michael Neoh is tipped to contest the seat for the National Party.

Bluestone understands that Mr Neoh resigned from the Hamilton branch of the Liberal Party soon after withdrawing from the Liberal Party pre-selection – which is fast attracting as many entries as the Melbourne Cup – and is to be confirmed shortly as the Nationals candidate.

Mr Neoh’s nomination by the Nationals would give him a clear run at the highly-prized seat, without enduring a potentially embarrassing face-off against Liberal Party contenders including Tom Napthine, the son of Dr Denis Napthine, agriculture activist Roma Britnell and former Upper House MP Donna Petrovich.

Mr Neoh could not be contacted today for comment and the National Party’s Victorian head office was tied up in its national conference in Canberra.

Sources have told Bluestone, however, that Mr Neoh’s candidacy for the National Party was all but assured.

The somewhat surprising move fits with Mr Neoh’s cryptic comment after withdrawing from Liberal Party preselection earlier this week that he was “keeping his options open”.

Mr Neoh repeated the same comment to the ABC earlier today:

“I certainly would love to represent rural and regional Victoria but at this time I still want to keep my options as wide as possible,” he said.

While some thought Mr Neoh might run as an independent, Bluestone has been told that Mr Neoh decided he could only run with the support of a major party behind him.

Again, his comments to the ABC today support this view:

“I think some of the ingredients that are really important to any candidate are having full support and having a platform to do that.”

The Nationals last held what was then the seat of Warrnambool from 1985-1999 under the hugely popular John McGrath.

While this latest move may see Mr Neoh build upon his political aspirations, it will also present a major challenge to the Liberal Party by splitting the conservative vote between the two Coalition partners.

This will be music to the ears of independent Roy Reekie and Greens candidate Thomas Campbell, who will be looking for any advantage they can to pull back a seat that requires an almost 12% swing to change from Liberal hands.

Unlocked – read our earlier comment piece here: By-election: are we on a road to nowhere?

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