First day in Parliament: Mary Aldred with the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley. Aldred’s election
was a rare good news story for a Liberal Party that suffered an electoral nightmare.
By Catherine Watson
MONASH’S new federal MP’s introduction to Parliament was an unusual one. She arrived last Tuesday morning just in time to vote on who should lead the Liberal Party following an electoral wipeout that took former leader Peter Dutton with it.
Mary Aldred declines to tell the Post who she voted for but the fact that she was photographed with new leader Sussan Ley after the vote speaks volumes.
She says Ley has been a frequent visitor to the Monash electorate over the past 18 months as she introduced the then deputy Liberal leader to the many issues confronting her electorate.
Aldred won the seat of Monash after a particularly complicated local election involving four strong candidates, and despite the national swing away from her own party. It took nine days of counting to determine the winner. Even now it’s not official.
MONASH’S new federal MP’s introduction to Parliament was an unusual one. She arrived last Tuesday morning just in time to vote on who should lead the Liberal Party following an electoral wipeout that took former leader Peter Dutton with it.
Mary Aldred declines to tell the Post who she voted for but the fact that she was photographed with new leader Sussan Ley after the vote speaks volumes.
She says Ley has been a frequent visitor to the Monash electorate over the past 18 months as she introduced the then deputy Liberal leader to the many issues confronting her electorate.
Aldred won the seat of Monash after a particularly complicated local election involving four strong candidates, and despite the national swing away from her own party. It took nine days of counting to determine the winner. Even now it’s not official.
Asked to explain her success, against the national trend, she says it came off her track record of 20 years of experience in the Monash community.
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“I ran a very strongly locally focused campaign. That proved successful against a very difficult opposition from a nationally coordinated teal campaign that put over a million dollars into this electorate. That’s $29 per vote, which is the most expensive amount of Climate 200 funding anywhere across Australia.
“We had Labor on the ascendancy at a national level and of course the incumbent running again. We've even had a little bit of a swing to us as well so I'm incredibly humbled by the support from our community. “ How did it feel arriving at Parliament and meeting many of her colleagues for the first time just in time for a tense leadership vote? |
"I had a very warm welcome which I was very grateful for. It was really good to see a number of shadow ministers that had spent a lot of time in Monash through the campaign, including Sussan as the new leader who I think visited at least half a dozen times.
“Obviously it was my first time walking into the party room and so that privilege was not lost on me, but also we've had a very disappointing national result. We've got an enormous task ahead of us but it's not an insurmountable one.”
How did the Liberal Party get their campaign so wrong?
“Well that will be explored further in the review process. We were trying to do something that had not been done in 100 years and that is to gain government from a first term Labor government so it was always going to be a big task.”
Did the party invest too much time in the culture wars?
“Obviously it was my first time walking into the party room and so that privilege was not lost on me, but also we've had a very disappointing national result. We've got an enormous task ahead of us but it's not an insurmountable one.”
How did the Liberal Party get their campaign so wrong?
“Well that will be explored further in the review process. We were trying to do something that had not been done in 100 years and that is to gain government from a first term Labor government so it was always going to be a big task.”
Did the party invest too much time in the culture wars?
Ever the diplomat, Aldred responds that the party will review what went wrong. “Certainly my area of policy interest, and also I believe our community here, want to see a strong focus on fixing the economy and supporting people who are drivers of a strong economy, particularly small business people and farmers.”
Asked whether she would describe herself as a conservative, moderate or progressive within the Liberal Party, she responds that she doesn’t like being pigeonholed.
“I'm a product of my community. I believe in a strong economy. It's very important, for example, that we're able to have market access as a region with many primary producers. So the economy is the main focus for me.
“You can ask me questions on any social issues that you like, but I believe in the freedom of individual people to make decisions about their own lives.”
Is the Liberal Party’s nuclear policy dead after the election wipeout?
“Well, I don't want to pre-empt any proper processes and I think it's really important after every election whether you win or lose, but particularly when you lose, to methodically go through the reasons for that.
“My view on energy has always been that we've got three goals, that we're really not meeting very well at the moment, and that's reliability, affordability and sustainability.”
She would of course have much preferred to be the Monash MP in a Coalition government but says she has a track record of achieving results with every stripe of state and federal government, particularly as CEO of the Committee for Gippsland.
“I've had some lovely congratulatory messages from government members. While we differ on policy, I’m someone who works in a constructive and collegiate way and I've always put the best interest to this community at the forefront of everything that I do.
“And of course, you're part of the national parliament so making considered and informed contributions to a range of policy debates is very important.”
While her electorate office will be in Warragul – probably former MP Russell Broadbent’s office – she says she plans to introduce a mobile office to reach the far-flung corners of her very large electorate.
“We've got very diverse communities. I think it's really important to visit towns, particularly in more remote areas, because for all sorts of reasons, whether it's employment or carer responsibilities or mobility issues or transport issues, people should have access to their local member in their own town.”
Asked whether she would describe herself as a conservative, moderate or progressive within the Liberal Party, she responds that she doesn’t like being pigeonholed.
“I'm a product of my community. I believe in a strong economy. It's very important, for example, that we're able to have market access as a region with many primary producers. So the economy is the main focus for me.
“You can ask me questions on any social issues that you like, but I believe in the freedom of individual people to make decisions about their own lives.”
Is the Liberal Party’s nuclear policy dead after the election wipeout?
“Well, I don't want to pre-empt any proper processes and I think it's really important after every election whether you win or lose, but particularly when you lose, to methodically go through the reasons for that.
“My view on energy has always been that we've got three goals, that we're really not meeting very well at the moment, and that's reliability, affordability and sustainability.”
She would of course have much preferred to be the Monash MP in a Coalition government but says she has a track record of achieving results with every stripe of state and federal government, particularly as CEO of the Committee for Gippsland.
“I've had some lovely congratulatory messages from government members. While we differ on policy, I’m someone who works in a constructive and collegiate way and I've always put the best interest to this community at the forefront of everything that I do.
“And of course, you're part of the national parliament so making considered and informed contributions to a range of policy debates is very important.”
While her electorate office will be in Warragul – probably former MP Russell Broadbent’s office – she says she plans to introduce a mobile office to reach the far-flung corners of her very large electorate.
“We've got very diverse communities. I think it's really important to visit towns, particularly in more remote areas, because for all sorts of reasons, whether it's employment or carer responsibilities or mobility issues or transport issues, people should have access to their local member in their own town.”