Russell Broadbent, Independent By Catherine Watson
ON MARCH 23, when the Post requested an interview with independent MP and candidate Russell Broadbent, his chief of staff responded: Thanks for reaching out to Russell. He’d be pleased to do an interview and can make himself available in the first week of April: Tuesday 1 April 11.30am or early morning Thursday 2 April and Friday 3 April are all looking good at the moment. Or I can find a time in the following week if needed.
March 28. An email from Mr Broadbent’s chief of staff informs me that unfortunately he will not be available for an interview as scheduled.
Could we find another time? Unfortunately no. Mr Broadbent is unavailable.
Ouch! Clearly the Post has offended our local MP, but how? I look back at past issues to find the sore spot. Two days earlier we’d published our questions from readers. There’s one from Frank Schooneveldt who wants to know why Mr Broadbent is running in the 2025 federal election at 74 years of age. Hmmm, I wonder if that hit a nerve.
ON MARCH 23, when the Post requested an interview with independent MP and candidate Russell Broadbent, his chief of staff responded: Thanks for reaching out to Russell. He’d be pleased to do an interview and can make himself available in the first week of April: Tuesday 1 April 11.30am or early morning Thursday 2 April and Friday 3 April are all looking good at the moment. Or I can find a time in the following week if needed.
March 28. An email from Mr Broadbent’s chief of staff informs me that unfortunately he will not be available for an interview as scheduled.
Could we find another time? Unfortunately no. Mr Broadbent is unavailable.
Ouch! Clearly the Post has offended our local MP, but how? I look back at past issues to find the sore spot. Two days earlier we’d published our questions from readers. There’s one from Frank Schooneveldt who wants to know why Mr Broadbent is running in the 2025 federal election at 74 years of age. Hmmm, I wonder if that hit a nerve.
March 31. An email from Mr Broadbent to my private email address asking me to volunteer for “Team Broadbent”. Um, I’ll get back to you on that.
The email must have been sent to everyone in the electorate who ever contacted him. Clearly he hasn’t vetted his correspondents very carefully because my last contact with him was in 2021 when I wrote to him:
Dear Mr Broadbent
I have been writing to you for 20 years - sometimes to praise you and sometimes with a request - and never once had a reply. Is this a record or do you treat all your constituents in this way?
In retaliation I throw all your propaganda letters in the recycling bin unopened. 😁
Yours sincerely, Catherine Watson
Mr Broadbent’s email informs me that he is not seeking or accepting any financial donations. Given that he’s running his election campaign from a taxpayer-funded electorate office, with an electorate database and four taxpayer-paid electorate officers at his disposal, perhaps he doesn’t need to.
April 11. Finally, a breakthrough. Another email to my private address from Mr Broadbent, inviting me to a gathering of the faithful in Wonthaggi. I’ll be able to ask Frank’s question, and pop in another couple if I get a chance.
April 16, 7pm, Wonthaggi Workers Club. Well over 100 people here, not a bad crowd for a week night. I find a seat.
“What are you doing here?” someone asks. I look up. It’s Russell Broadbent. I half expect to be marched out but he’s grinning at me like a long-long friend. I suspect he’s mistaken me for someone else, but he may have the politician’s knack of recalling people he’s met briefly.
“I came to hear what you’ve got to say,” I reply. “Will I be able to ask questions?” He nods.
The meeting starts. It’s classic Broadbent. He says the pre-polling (“leaked to us because we don't have the money to do it ourselves”) shows he’s far better placed than anybody thinks.
“A bunch of parties are starting to panic. I notice they're attacking each other beautifully. That was our intention. They're doing a very, very good job. They have now attacked Deb Leonard at great expense, and she's attacking them at great expense to her. We're in the middle, just watching what's going on, thoroughly enjoying every bit of it.
“I’ve been so well received around the electorate as an independent. I can tell you, I never had that reception as a Liberal. A beautiful man today said, ‘I could never vote for you as a Liberal, but now you've done the right thing I can’.”
Then an Inverloch friend explains that Broadbent is the only one who’s qualified for the job. Why? Because he’s got 25 years of experience as a parliamentarian. The combined total of all the other candidates? Zero. LOUD APPLAUSE.
Next up is Professor Ian Brighthope, who says that, like Broadbent, he is a lapsed Liberal Party member. “I left the party when I could not get my way with the Health Minister, Greg Hunt. [AUDIENCE GROANS] He would not take any notice about putting the population on vitamin D to raise the vitamin D level so that we could all get over the COVID flu quickly because it was not the killer virus that we all talked about.”
I’m confused but the audience clearly knows what’s going on. And then it clicks. I thought I was coming to an election meeting. I’m at an anti-vaxx meeting. It's about more than pharmaceuticals, it's like a religious revival.
“We need freedom and Russell is a freedom fighter,” Professor Brighthope says. “We're all freedom fighters. Freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of association.”
We hear rousing speeches from Katie Ashby-Koppens, a lawyer who lost her job because of the vaccine mandate , and Dr Chris Neil, a cardiologist who lost his job because of the vaccine mandate and is standing as a Senate candidate for the People First Party.
Finally, nearly an hour in, we get to questions. I get in first because I might not get another chance.
Do you support a modular nuclear plant at Loy Yang as proposed by the Coalition?
The question strikes a dud note. No one’s come here tonight to talk about that, they’re here to talk about freedom. But Broadbent accepts the question.
“I’ve said there will be no nuclear in La Trobe Valley without community support. And I've said the same thing about wind turbines, which I hate. [LOUD APPLAUSE.] I don't hate much in my life, but I hate wind turbines. They're an industrial blight on my beautiful, beautiful landscape. They are terribly inefficient and they cost a fortune in emissions to build.
“I think there's a future for nuclear, but I don’t believe it will be the nuclear power we’re currently using. I think it will be some form of nuclear fusion and it will be a much smaller package plant and it will be much cheaper than the options that are being put to us at the moment. And it's a long way off.
“I've been called a fossil fool. And I believe that the upgrading of the Yallourn Power Station, the refitting and maintenance of it, making a more efficient new power station, will give us very cheap base load power in Victoria. And we have a wealth of that. (LOUD APPLAUSE)
“We’ve got an abundance of gas. So it just seems absolutely ridiculous to me. We are sending our own gas and coal overseas for other people to burn. The emissions are still there, and I really have a problem with the whole way we're going about our energy and fossil fuels.” (LOUD APPLAUSE)
The next question takes us back to vaccines and Covid. A woman asks whether Victorians “who suffered so much” will ever see former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews brought to justice.
Before Broadbent can respond Professor Brighthope takes the mike and urges patience. “It took a long time for things to happen in Nuremberg, after the Second World War. We've experienced something like that with the greatest lockdown in the world in Melbourne … we lost our freedom of speech. And that's what the communists do, the extreme socialists do, when they're wanting to introduce Marxism into a system. And we have experienced that in Victoria, in Melbourne.”
Then we watch a recorded video from a couple of Broadbent supporters. Everyone seems to know them. In fact everyone here seems to know everyone else. But I’ve had enough. I need a gin and a cigarette.
Sorry, Frank, I never did get to ask your question.
Russell Broadbent’s policies: https://russellbroadbent.com.au/policy-positions/
The email must have been sent to everyone in the electorate who ever contacted him. Clearly he hasn’t vetted his correspondents very carefully because my last contact with him was in 2021 when I wrote to him:
Dear Mr Broadbent
I have been writing to you for 20 years - sometimes to praise you and sometimes with a request - and never once had a reply. Is this a record or do you treat all your constituents in this way?
In retaliation I throw all your propaganda letters in the recycling bin unopened. 😁
Yours sincerely, Catherine Watson
Mr Broadbent’s email informs me that he is not seeking or accepting any financial donations. Given that he’s running his election campaign from a taxpayer-funded electorate office, with an electorate database and four taxpayer-paid electorate officers at his disposal, perhaps he doesn’t need to.
April 11. Finally, a breakthrough. Another email to my private address from Mr Broadbent, inviting me to a gathering of the faithful in Wonthaggi. I’ll be able to ask Frank’s question, and pop in another couple if I get a chance.
April 16, 7pm, Wonthaggi Workers Club. Well over 100 people here, not a bad crowd for a week night. I find a seat.
“What are you doing here?” someone asks. I look up. It’s Russell Broadbent. I half expect to be marched out but he’s grinning at me like a long-long friend. I suspect he’s mistaken me for someone else, but he may have the politician’s knack of recalling people he’s met briefly.
“I came to hear what you’ve got to say,” I reply. “Will I be able to ask questions?” He nods.
The meeting starts. It’s classic Broadbent. He says the pre-polling (“leaked to us because we don't have the money to do it ourselves”) shows he’s far better placed than anybody thinks.
“A bunch of parties are starting to panic. I notice they're attacking each other beautifully. That was our intention. They're doing a very, very good job. They have now attacked Deb Leonard at great expense, and she's attacking them at great expense to her. We're in the middle, just watching what's going on, thoroughly enjoying every bit of it.
“I’ve been so well received around the electorate as an independent. I can tell you, I never had that reception as a Liberal. A beautiful man today said, ‘I could never vote for you as a Liberal, but now you've done the right thing I can’.”
Then an Inverloch friend explains that Broadbent is the only one who’s qualified for the job. Why? Because he’s got 25 years of experience as a parliamentarian. The combined total of all the other candidates? Zero. LOUD APPLAUSE.
Next up is Professor Ian Brighthope, who says that, like Broadbent, he is a lapsed Liberal Party member. “I left the party when I could not get my way with the Health Minister, Greg Hunt. [AUDIENCE GROANS] He would not take any notice about putting the population on vitamin D to raise the vitamin D level so that we could all get over the COVID flu quickly because it was not the killer virus that we all talked about.”
I’m confused but the audience clearly knows what’s going on. And then it clicks. I thought I was coming to an election meeting. I’m at an anti-vaxx meeting. It's about more than pharmaceuticals, it's like a religious revival.
“We need freedom and Russell is a freedom fighter,” Professor Brighthope says. “We're all freedom fighters. Freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of association.”
We hear rousing speeches from Katie Ashby-Koppens, a lawyer who lost her job because of the vaccine mandate , and Dr Chris Neil, a cardiologist who lost his job because of the vaccine mandate and is standing as a Senate candidate for the People First Party.
Finally, nearly an hour in, we get to questions. I get in first because I might not get another chance.
Do you support a modular nuclear plant at Loy Yang as proposed by the Coalition?
The question strikes a dud note. No one’s come here tonight to talk about that, they’re here to talk about freedom. But Broadbent accepts the question.
“I’ve said there will be no nuclear in La Trobe Valley without community support. And I've said the same thing about wind turbines, which I hate. [LOUD APPLAUSE.] I don't hate much in my life, but I hate wind turbines. They're an industrial blight on my beautiful, beautiful landscape. They are terribly inefficient and they cost a fortune in emissions to build.
“I think there's a future for nuclear, but I don’t believe it will be the nuclear power we’re currently using. I think it will be some form of nuclear fusion and it will be a much smaller package plant and it will be much cheaper than the options that are being put to us at the moment. And it's a long way off.
“I've been called a fossil fool. And I believe that the upgrading of the Yallourn Power Station, the refitting and maintenance of it, making a more efficient new power station, will give us very cheap base load power in Victoria. And we have a wealth of that. (LOUD APPLAUSE)
“We’ve got an abundance of gas. So it just seems absolutely ridiculous to me. We are sending our own gas and coal overseas for other people to burn. The emissions are still there, and I really have a problem with the whole way we're going about our energy and fossil fuels.” (LOUD APPLAUSE)
The next question takes us back to vaccines and Covid. A woman asks whether Victorians “who suffered so much” will ever see former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews brought to justice.
Before Broadbent can respond Professor Brighthope takes the mike and urges patience. “It took a long time for things to happen in Nuremberg, after the Second World War. We've experienced something like that with the greatest lockdown in the world in Melbourne … we lost our freedom of speech. And that's what the communists do, the extreme socialists do, when they're wanting to introduce Marxism into a system. And we have experienced that in Victoria, in Melbourne.”
Then we watch a recorded video from a couple of Broadbent supporters. Everyone seems to know them. In fact everyone here seems to know everyone else. But I’ve had enough. I need a gin and a cigarette.
Sorry, Frank, I never did get to ask your question.
Russell Broadbent’s policies: https://russellbroadbent.com.au/policy-positions/