Federal Election 2022

Broadbent survives national swing

22/5/2022

Russell Broadbent will represent Monash from the
Opposition benches. Photo: Geoff Ellis

By Catherine Watson

VETERAN MP Russell Broadbent has survived a national swing against the Liberal Party but the Monash electorate is now officially a marginal seat.

After counting of prepoll and election day votes and preferences, Mr Broadbent had a 2.41 per cent lead over his ALP challenger Jessica O’Donnell, down from 6.9 per cent in 2019.

Postal votes are still to be counted but tend to favour the Liberal Party and are not expected to change the result in Monash.

Aged 72, Mr Broadbent has held the seat (formerly McMillan) for 23 of the past 32 years. He survived a fierce election campaign that cost many of his much younger Liberal Party colleagues their political careers.

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The contest of ideas

8/5/2022

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Meg Edwards at the candidates' forum. Photo: Geoff Ellis

By Catherine Watson

You can credit the socialist democratic paradise of Sweden for making Meg Edwards a Liberal Democrat. After a year in Sweden as an exchange student the young Meg decided that, much as she liked the Swedish people, she didn’t want to live in a country where the government had so much control over people’s lives.

It took her a while to put a label on her own libertarian political instincts, taking a circuitous route via the Liberal Party.

“Oh I still believe in the Liberal Party values on their website,” she says. “I just don’t see them living their values.”

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The true believer

7/5/2022

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Labor’s Jessica O’Donnell speaks at the candidates’ forum
in Wonthaggi. Photo: Geoff Ellis

By Catherine Watson

IT’S difficult for Labor’s Jessica O’Donnell to find a space at the moment between work and campaigning so we settle on talking while she’s driving home from work. That’s normally her quiet, thinking time.

The last time we spoke, before the 2019 election, she was a Baw Baw councillor, a hairdresser, a student at Deakin University and a first-time Labor candidate in a federal election standing in a safe Liberal seat.

Three years later, her life has done a complete turnaround. She has finished her undergraduate degree and now runs her own consultancy, doing strategic communications and management for a construction firm.

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Take him or leave him

6/5/2022

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Liberal Russell Broadbent sometimes annoys his own party
as much as he does his opponents. Photo: Geoff Ellis

By Catherine Watson

AT A candidates’ forum in Wonthaggi on Wednesday, Russell Broadbent used about 20 seconds of his allotted five-minute spiel. “You all know me by now” was the nub of it. “Take me or leave me. I really don’t care.”

Aged 71, Mr Broadbent surprised many when he announced he wanted another go at Monash, a seat he’s held for 23 of the past 32 years and continuously since 2004. He has stood for the Liberal Party at every federal election since 1984, when he was aged just 33.

It’s been a long political career but not a stellar one. No portfolios in 30 years, not even a junior ministerial post. The closest he’s come to achieving high office was co-chairing the Parliamentary Group on Asbestos Related Disease.

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Actions speak louder

6/5/2022

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Independent Deb Leonard decided to stop complaining about politicians and have a go herself.

By Catherine Watson

THERE are a lot of things Independent Deb Leonard would rather be doing right now than fighting an election. Practising law and spending time with her family at weekends are just two of them.

“If we had an MP I thought was representing our community, and a government fighting for our community’s values, I’d have been quite happy to stay at home and get on with my life. Rather than sit back and complain I decided to step up and see if I could make a difference.”

Having embarked on her maiden political voyage journey, she has to admit it’s a very exciting time to be in politics with a groundswell of women coming together to change things.

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One of us

6/5/2022

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One Nation’s Allan Hicken, pictured with South Gippsland
Mayor Mohya Davies and campaign manager Alexandria Horvath, says
he’s just a blue collar worker who wants the best for his kids.

By Catherine Watson

WHEN the Post phones One Nation’s Allan Hicken, he’s sitting under a tree in Foster with Lexie, his friend and campaign manager, taking a break before hitting the hustings again.

Monash is a massive electorate – over 8000 square kilometres and 130 kilometres from end to end – with scores of towns, small and large, and so many different issues. As a newbie candidate with minimal support or resources, Allan Hicken is doing the best he can to cover the territory.

“Come election day I’m probably going to have the arse hanging out of me pants,” he says philosophically.

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The times they are a-changing

6/5/2022

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Mat Morgan says something has changed when more people are having a go at their Liberal MP than
at the guy in a Greens T shirt.

By Catherine Watson

MAT Morgan’s only 23 but he’s already a political veteran. “We’re one of those families that yells at the TV and discusses politics over lunch. I was never going to be able to avoid it. I’ve been handing out How to Vote cards since I was a kid.”

The Greens candidate for Monash picked his team early, tagging along with his grandfather Daryl Fyfe to hand out How to Vote cards. “Those were the Bob Brown days when there was a lot of homophobia around as well as prejudice about tree huggers so it was a good training ground.”

He volunteered for the Greens at the 2019 federal election. This election he volunteered to be the front man in Monash. Not that there’s ever great competition for the gig. “If we all keep moving along, we’ll get there. Someone had to put their hand up.”

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The paper candidate

5/5/2022

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Christine McShane, United Australia Party

By Catherine Watson

WE KNOW Christine McShane has visited the Monash electorate because her photo was in the Warragul Gazette at the candidates’ ballot draw last month.

But apart from that she’s keeping a low profile, unlike the bigwigs of the United Australia Party who have single-handedly propped up Australia newspaper and TV industries for the past six months.

The Post made repeated attempts to contact Ms McShane by phone and email but she did not respond.

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All at sea

5/5/2022

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“I’m just a normal guy,” David Welsh (Australian Federation Party)
told the candidates forum. Everything he said after that went to
prove he was anything but. Photo: Geoff Ellis

By Catherine Watson

AT FIRST I assumed David Welsh was another paper candidate, living far from our midst and unwilling to show his face in case someone asked him to name his favourite beach.

The Post attempted to contact him several times without success. No contact details were provided. The Australian Federation Party was not contactable by phone. Inquiries had to be made through a submission form to HQ, but there was no reply.

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