Brett Tessari: no sign of moleskins, RM Williams boots andakubra. No private school education either.
By Catherine Watson
IF NATIONAL Party candidate Brett Tessari needed any introduction to life on the land, he’s had a crash course over the past couple of months. He’s been knee deep in mud and sludge, zapped by an electric fence, threatened by bulls and slashed across the torso by a rogue barbed wire fence. He’s got two nail holes and a screw hole in his hand from a misfired nail gun and a wayward impact drill.
And that was just putting up his billboards, which now dot the countryside from Inverloch, at the southern end of the electorate, to Devon Meadows in the north.
Each evening after work, he and his wife Leanne have loaded up the car and trailer and headed out for a couple of hours of hard physical yakka. Tessari jokes that his years as a real estate agent have come in handy at last. “I’m a whizz with a sledge hammer and a board.”
IF NATIONAL Party candidate Brett Tessari needed any introduction to life on the land, he’s had a crash course over the past couple of months. He’s been knee deep in mud and sludge, zapped by an electric fence, threatened by bulls and slashed across the torso by a rogue barbed wire fence. He’s got two nail holes and a screw hole in his hand from a misfired nail gun and a wayward impact drill.
And that was just putting up his billboards, which now dot the countryside from Inverloch, at the southern end of the electorate, to Devon Meadows in the north.
Each evening after work, he and his wife Leanne have loaded up the car and trailer and headed out for a couple of hours of hard physical yakka. Tessari jokes that his years as a real estate agent have come in handy at last. “I’m a whizz with a sledge hammer and a board.”
Brett Tessari is not your usual National Party candidate. There’s no sign yet of the National Party uniform of moleskins, RM Williams boots and akubra. No private school education either. He attended Wonthaggi Tech School, where he admits he probably should have paid a bit more attention. At 16 he was working in the local abattoir. He’s managed stores, worked in the building industry and now works in real estate.
He’s a townie, born and bred in Wonthaggi, a town with a strong socialist history that’s about as far from the National Party heartland as you could get. He grew up in a mixed household – his mother voted Liberal, his father voted Labor – but no one would have dreamed of voting National because that was the farmers’ party.
The National Party has only contested the seat of Bass once before, in 2006, when Jacky Abbott secured 3.56 per cent of the votes. But they found it hard to pass up on the popular home-grown ex-mayor and long-time footy club president when he became unexpectedly available.
Mr Tessari spent two years as deputy mayor and three years as mayor of Bass Coast, presiding over a mostly united and effective council. At the 2020 council election, he secured 6372 primary votes, almost half the ward total in a five-councillor contest.
He’s hoping the personal following will encourage enough voters to forgo their usual party loyalties and vote for the candidate. “I hope I’ve built up the confidence in people that no matter what party I’m in, I’ll go in to bat for them.
“I felt that if I didn’t have a go I hadn’t justified the opportunities that had been given to me as deputy mayor and mayor. That certainly opened a lot of doors and it felt like stepping up to state politics was the logical next step. As much good as you can do at the local level you can achieve more at the state level.”
When he was announced as the National Party candidate, many people assumed he was standing to bolster the Liberal Party’s chances winning the seat back from Labor.
They couldn’t be more wrong. Tessari actually joined the Liberal Party earlier this year with a view to seeking preselection but was “actively discouraged” and left after a couple of months.
“I quit the party, feeling very disillusioned. At that point I was walking away from the idea of politics. I thought that was it. Leanne and I talked about a change of direction.”
Soon afterwards, however, the National Party’s Victorian leader, Peter Walsh, and the Member for Eastern Victoria, Melina Bath. sounded him out about standing for Bass.
“I really liked what I heard. I made it very clear when I was considering whether to stand that I was not interested in just taking the seat away from Labor. I said I would only do this if the National Party showed they were serious about winning the seat.”
The party has indeed backed its candidate with a healthy budget for advertising and billboards – even if he has to erect them himself – and regular visits to the electorate by shadow ministers and Peter Walsh.
As mayor and councillor Mr Tessari has attended the opening of enough new schools, health hubs, clubrooms and boat ramps to acknowledge the Labor Government has spent a bucketload of money in Bass Coast in the past four years. However, he says there was a huge backlog to catch up on after 20 years of political neglect, in the Bass electorate in particular and in regional Victoria in general.
The Coalition has committed that if it wins power 25 per cent of all new State Government infrastructure spending will go to the regions, up from 13 per cent in the 2022-23 state budget.
He acknowledges the path to victory won’t be easy. “I reckon Liberal and Labor both have a 20,000 vote start on me so I’ve got a lot of work to do. But I wouldn’t be doing it if I wasn’t a chance.”
Though he’s well known in Bass Coast, like all the candidates he’s got his work cut out to make an impression at the other end of the electorate: Koo Wee Rup, Tooradin, Lang Lang, Devon Meadows, Pearcedale.
The football connections certainly help. He’s played football since he was eight, was president of the Wonthaggi Power Football and Netball Club for many years and is still chair of the Gippsland Football League.
His years as mayor means he can step into pretty much any situation with ease. These days he looks as comfortable in a roomful of artists as he does down at the local footy club. “So much money goes into sport,” he says, “but very limited money into the arts.”
He says his years on the council have broadened his horizons. “I lived in a bubble. I see that now. Now when I hear people with their throw-away lines, I step up and correct them. I say ‘You don’t know the circumstances’.”
He also became more aware of environmental issues as the council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and adopted a climate action plan last year. The council has also advocated for permanent protection of the Western Port Woodlands in the face of a surge in sand mining.
At Tessari’s urging, the National Party has agreed to a moratorium on new work authorities for sand extraction until the Bass Coast Distinctive Areas and Landscapes (DAL) project is completed and the State Government completes its current review of sand extraction areas in the Melbourne Supply Area.
“If suitable sand is found on cleared farmland, the State Government should be promoting that instead of sand extraction in our last major forest,” he says.
Three major issues for Bass electorate
1. Poor regional infrastructure – “CFA stations are pretty ordinary across the electorate. Staff and volunteers are disgruntled. Ambulance and police are underfunded. Instead of fixing the Warneet jetty they’ve just closed it off.”
2. Roads - "It sounds boring but it's true. The condition of the roads is woeful, especially the South Gippsland Highway and the Tooradin-Baxter Road.”
3. Extractive industries – “The lack of foresight and planning is a disgrace. There are B double sand trucks going down the main street of Lang Lang. You’ve got Grantville residents affected by the dust, the noise, the trucks. They’re ripping out beautiful woodland to get the sand and we’re expecting 2000 B double truck movements a day going through Bass Coast. It’s affecting liveability, mental health and the environment.”
He’s a townie, born and bred in Wonthaggi, a town with a strong socialist history that’s about as far from the National Party heartland as you could get. He grew up in a mixed household – his mother voted Liberal, his father voted Labor – but no one would have dreamed of voting National because that was the farmers’ party.
The National Party has only contested the seat of Bass once before, in 2006, when Jacky Abbott secured 3.56 per cent of the votes. But they found it hard to pass up on the popular home-grown ex-mayor and long-time footy club president when he became unexpectedly available.
Mr Tessari spent two years as deputy mayor and three years as mayor of Bass Coast, presiding over a mostly united and effective council. At the 2020 council election, he secured 6372 primary votes, almost half the ward total in a five-councillor contest.
He’s hoping the personal following will encourage enough voters to forgo their usual party loyalties and vote for the candidate. “I hope I’ve built up the confidence in people that no matter what party I’m in, I’ll go in to bat for them.
“I felt that if I didn’t have a go I hadn’t justified the opportunities that had been given to me as deputy mayor and mayor. That certainly opened a lot of doors and it felt like stepping up to state politics was the logical next step. As much good as you can do at the local level you can achieve more at the state level.”
When he was announced as the National Party candidate, many people assumed he was standing to bolster the Liberal Party’s chances winning the seat back from Labor.
They couldn’t be more wrong. Tessari actually joined the Liberal Party earlier this year with a view to seeking preselection but was “actively discouraged” and left after a couple of months.
“I quit the party, feeling very disillusioned. At that point I was walking away from the idea of politics. I thought that was it. Leanne and I talked about a change of direction.”
Soon afterwards, however, the National Party’s Victorian leader, Peter Walsh, and the Member for Eastern Victoria, Melina Bath. sounded him out about standing for Bass.
“I really liked what I heard. I made it very clear when I was considering whether to stand that I was not interested in just taking the seat away from Labor. I said I would only do this if the National Party showed they were serious about winning the seat.”
The party has indeed backed its candidate with a healthy budget for advertising and billboards – even if he has to erect them himself – and regular visits to the electorate by shadow ministers and Peter Walsh.
As mayor and councillor Mr Tessari has attended the opening of enough new schools, health hubs, clubrooms and boat ramps to acknowledge the Labor Government has spent a bucketload of money in Bass Coast in the past four years. However, he says there was a huge backlog to catch up on after 20 years of political neglect, in the Bass electorate in particular and in regional Victoria in general.
The Coalition has committed that if it wins power 25 per cent of all new State Government infrastructure spending will go to the regions, up from 13 per cent in the 2022-23 state budget.
He acknowledges the path to victory won’t be easy. “I reckon Liberal and Labor both have a 20,000 vote start on me so I’ve got a lot of work to do. But I wouldn’t be doing it if I wasn’t a chance.”
Though he’s well known in Bass Coast, like all the candidates he’s got his work cut out to make an impression at the other end of the electorate: Koo Wee Rup, Tooradin, Lang Lang, Devon Meadows, Pearcedale.
The football connections certainly help. He’s played football since he was eight, was president of the Wonthaggi Power Football and Netball Club for many years and is still chair of the Gippsland Football League.
His years as mayor means he can step into pretty much any situation with ease. These days he looks as comfortable in a roomful of artists as he does down at the local footy club. “So much money goes into sport,” he says, “but very limited money into the arts.”
He says his years on the council have broadened his horizons. “I lived in a bubble. I see that now. Now when I hear people with their throw-away lines, I step up and correct them. I say ‘You don’t know the circumstances’.”
He also became more aware of environmental issues as the council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and adopted a climate action plan last year. The council has also advocated for permanent protection of the Western Port Woodlands in the face of a surge in sand mining.
At Tessari’s urging, the National Party has agreed to a moratorium on new work authorities for sand extraction until the Bass Coast Distinctive Areas and Landscapes (DAL) project is completed and the State Government completes its current review of sand extraction areas in the Melbourne Supply Area.
“If suitable sand is found on cleared farmland, the State Government should be promoting that instead of sand extraction in our last major forest,” he says.
Three major issues for Bass electorate
1. Poor regional infrastructure – “CFA stations are pretty ordinary across the electorate. Staff and volunteers are disgruntled. Ambulance and police are underfunded. Instead of fixing the Warneet jetty they’ve just closed it off.”
2. Roads - "It sounds boring but it's true. The condition of the roads is woeful, especially the South Gippsland Highway and the Tooradin-Baxter Road.”
3. Extractive industries – “The lack of foresight and planning is a disgrace. There are B double sand trucks going down the main street of Lang Lang. You’ve got Grantville residents affected by the dust, the noise, the trucks. They’re ripping out beautiful woodland to get the sand and we’re expecting 2000 B double truck movements a day going through Bass Coast. It’s affecting liveability, mental health and the environment.”