New seat, new beginning for veteran Monash MP

THERE was a Palestinian protest in full voice out the front.

And inside the Australian Parliament on Wednesday this week, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was in full flight.

The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had one job, he said, to protect the Australian people and by standing by with a mixed message on the war in the Middle East and failing to take action before 83 refugees walked free, he had “gone missing”.

There was a lot going on.

Hardly anyone had noticed that veteran Monash MP, Russell Broadbent, had slipped quietly into a new seat on the floor of the Parliament, beside the other independents including Vietnamese-born Australian Dai Trang Le and close to several Nationals including Pat Conaghan.

A day, not a week, it seems, is a long time in politics.

For Mr Broadbent, speaking exclusively to the Sentinel-Times, it’s a matter of getting on with the job after he lost pre-selection last Sunday and declared he was no longer a Liberal MP.

Will it effect his access to Government Ministers?

“No, I’ve always had good relationships on the Labor side, never a problem getting in to see a government minister.

And on his own side, are there any hard feelings?

“My friends understood, my enemies didn’t.

“I got plenty of good emails and a few nasty ones, but that goes with the territory.”

Mr Broadbent said he accepted wholeheartedly the process of pre-selection but when the result was so emphatic, attracting only 16 votes out of a possible 193, he realised he not only had little support among local delegates, but also at higher levels in the party as well.

Many would have stayed and sucked it up, but that’s not Russell.

Clearly there had been a campaign right from the top of the party that they needed “generational change in Monash” and Mr Broadbent had to go.

“I probably would have retired at the next election anyway, but it was too far out to have a pre-selection.

“I’ve been involved in quite a few campaigns, and being the candidate for 18 months is just too much. You’ve got to turn up to everything and be on your toes every day,” he said.

In fact, Mr Broadbent has fought 13 Federal election campaigns, losing his first two tilts 1984 and 1987 as well as being the only sitting MP to lose his seat twice and still come back again.

“I lost the GST election in Corinella in 1993 and McMillan in 1998 by 870 votes when they brought in Barry Cummingham to support Christian Zahra,” he said, acknowledging that was the toughest moment in his long career.

Since then, however, he has won eight elections in-a-row.

But speaking to the Sentinel-Times this week, he said he was now looking forward, not back.

“We’ve got another 18 months to make a difference and I’d like to hear from the local councils about what we need, not what we want, but the one or two things that we really need to get on as an election promise.

“Some of these things we got funding for, and a good example is the improvements on the South Gippsland Highway east of Koonwarra. There’s no doubt that work has saved lives, we know that. You've got Darren Chester to thank for that.

“That’s what we want to hear about. What are those things that simply must be funded across the electorate of Monash.

“That’s what we need to be working on over the next 18 months.”

Mr Broadbent said road maintenance and housing were two of the other big issues.

“If the government is going to scale back its major projects plan, then we want to see some of that money going to roads.

“Everyone can tell you where there are some terrible potholes in their area. Our roads are in a shocking state.

“And the crisis in housing, especially where people want to come to our regional areas, including to support the visitor economy, but can’t find somewhere to live.

“That’s a big one,” he said.

But Mr Broadbent said it was the work behind the scenes, helping individuals in impossible situations, where intervention by the local Member of Parliament was the only resort, were some of the most satisfying moments in a long career.

"We've had some of those 'mission impossibles' and I know in the case of John Howard, he really hel;ped us achieve the impossible at times."

Mr Broadbent welcomes anyone with a seemingly impossible problem with bureaucracy to make contact with his office.

So, dumping the party that has supported him as a candidate and a member for almost 40 years probably wasn’t the right way to go, even if they demonstrated they wanted a change in Monash, but Mr Broadbent has already dusted himself off and set his sights for the next 18 months of his last term.

And will he stand at the next election as an independent?

“No,” said Mr Broadbent, but he did leave the question hanging a bit.

“You never know, there could still be a couple of twists and turns before the next election,” Mr Broadbent said.