Labor’s Buckingham promises ideas over insults in the fight for Bass

LABOR’S candidate for Bass Chris Buckingham has vowed to run a traditional campaign free of personal attacks as he takes on what he calls a blue and orange wave of anger in the most marginal seat in Victoria.

The 57-year-old said politics in Australia was at a crossroads on integrity and professionalism and he would not be dragged into the politics of division.

“If this election is about a contest of ideas and policy, I will hold people to account for what they say and do, but one of the things I’m absolutely committed to is being respectful to my opponents,” Mr Buckingham told the Sentinel-Times.

“Bass has got country in its DNA and in the country we all get on.

“Yes, by all means let’s have the debate, let’s have the discussion, but let’s not get into the personal stuff.”

Mr Buckingham said other parties in the race were trying to capitalise on an underlying anger in the community.

He said the global shift to right-wing extremism was now playing out in Australia through parties on the right, some of which were no longer playing by the traditional rules of politics.

“They have no qualms about insulting their opposition,” he said.

“They’re just playing out of a different game, a different rulebook.”

He said he had made a point of responding to every comment on his social media pages, and that the vitriol online did not match what he was hearing on doorsteps.

“It’s not reflective of our community,” he said.

Born in North Devon in the United Kingdom, Mr Buckingham arrived in Australia aged 10, grew up in Melbourne and Geelong and studied at Monash University.

He made a tree change to Moe about 30 years ago and joined the Labor Party after seeing the damage done to the Latrobe Valley by the privatisation of the SEC under the Kennett government.

“I thought that is not the way a wealthy, prosperous country like Australia should be operating, so I got motivated,” he said.

He has previously led the Latrobe Valley Authority and Casey Cardinia Libraries and was most recently chief executive of The Fair Co., a social procurement consultancy formerly known as Jobsbank.

It is not his first tilt at politics, having run for Labor against Liberal Russell Broadbent in McMillan in 2016, when he halved the margin from about 12 per cent to 6 per cent.

Preselected in November, he resigned from The Fair Co. in December and moved in January to Inverloch, where he has holidayed for 35 years.

He is now campaigning full time, apart from one or two days a month of facilitation work with Gippsland Women’s Health.

“I’m running for parliament, that’s it,” he said.

“I’m all in on this.”

State Bass MP Jordan Crugnale held the seat by about 200 votes in 2022 and is not recontesting, with Mr Buckingham facing Liberal Rochelle Halstead, One Nation’s Nikole Schellekens and others at November’s state election.

He said his ideal result was to hold Bass on the slimmest of margins.

“Because then I know that decision-makers in Melbourne will retain a very strong interest in outcomes being delivered in this community,” he said.

On health he acknowledged Labor had not yet started stages two and three of the Wonthaggi Hospital redevelopment it promised before the 2022 election.

“We haven’t got stages two and three underway yet, and I would acknowledge that,” he said.

The Coalition pledged $350 million in July to deliver both stages in its first term if elected.

One Nation’s Nikole Schellekens told the Sentinel-Times earlier this month that One Nation wanted incentives to get GPs and medical students working in regional areas.

“Wonthaggi Hospital isn’t functioning at capacity due to staffing numbers, yet the plan is to throw more money at developing it further and hoping for the best,” she said.

Mr Buckingham said Wonthaggi Hospital’s recent recognition as a level two facility meant higher standards, including nurse-to-patient ratios, but warned subsidising work placements to attract staff would push up rents.

“We do not want rentals to go up again,” he said.

On roads he conceded it had been a shocker of a season for potholes in Bass, with investment failing to keep up with the volume and weight of traffic.

“If you ever wanted to see living evidence of that in Bass, the road between Lang Lang and Cranbourne is in pretty poor state and has been for a number of years,” he said.

“You don’t notice a road when it’s in good nick, you notice it when it’s in bad nick.

“What we need to do with the roads is make sure we get the balance between repairs and renovation right.”

A Victorian Auditor-General’s report tabled this month found 48 per cent of state-managed roads were in poor or very poor condition in 2024, up from 39 per cent in 2021.

On climate change he pointed to Inverloch, where coastal erosion has been eating into the shoreline.

“I think in Bass we’re all aware of the impacts of climate change,” he said.

“We’ve seen it in Inverloch.

“We’ve also got real problems on the Bass flats and around Lang Lang and Tooradin with the risk of coastal inundation.”

Mr Buckingham said anyone running for parliament carried a responsibility to treat everybody with respect.

“Integrity goes to the very core of democracy,” he said.

“I don’t think the politics of division have a place in Bass.”