NEWS DESK
It’s on: the battle for Dunkley Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au POLITICS can be a brutal business and that has certainly been the case for Dunkley Liberal MP Bruce Billson after he was axed from incoming Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s reshuffled cabinet last week in the wake of Mr Turnbull’s successful leadership challenge against former prime minister Tony Abbott. Mr Billson had wanted to continue in his role as Small Business Minister but was told by Mr Turnbull last weekend his time “at the boardroom table of our country”, as Mr Billson described it to The Times, had come to an abrupt end. “It’s been a bruising experience, one of great disappointment both personally and professionally, but it’s a tough business and this is part of it,” he said. “The Prime Minister made it clear to me that my demotion was nothing to do with my performance and I’d excelled in what I was doing.” Mr Turnbull appointed Higgins Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer as Mr Billson’s successor as Small Business Minister. As the disappointment of losing his seat at the cabinet table sinks in, Mr Billson also faces a looming battle to retain the seat of Dunkley when the federal election is called. Labor Party strategists have Dunkley in their sights as a potential ‘gain’ despite Mr Billson holding a 5.5 per cent margin at the 2013 federal election. Mr Billson declined to confirm he would definitely stand as the Liberal Party candidate for Dunkley come election time but would decide
ALP challenger lays down the law
Happier times: Liberal MP Bruce Billson out and about in Seaford last year trying to sell the much-criticised first budget of the former Abbott government. Picture: Yanni
“I’ll be having a long and deep and meaningful discussion with my family about the next phases of the career strategy,” he said. “I am the preselected candidate for the Liberal Party for Dunkley. The place runs through my veins and I love the community and I look forward to continuing to serve it. “Right now my focus is on supporting the people around me and I’ll focus on myself once I’m satisfied that the dedicated staff and people around me who have given so much are being looked after as well as they can.” MPs lose office support staff if they are ousted from cabinet. Mr Billson said he would “have to go through a period of readjustment” to political life outside of cabinet in Canberra after more than a decade as a cabinet
minister but he fully supports the new Turnbull government. “I’ve just been encouraging everyone … to stay classy and focused. I’m doing all I can do to support the success of the new government because their success is inextricably linked to our nation’s success and the opportunities and quality of life our citizens in Dunkley can enjoy.” An upside to the downside of being abruptly dumped from cabinet is a renewed ability to fully focus on winning re-election as the member for Dunkley if Mr Billson decides to continue his political career. “It’s always a juggle of limited time and lots more demand on it than you can squeeze into the diary but that contest looks very different now and you might say my diary has opened up somewhat,” he said.
LABOR believes it has a chance to win the seat of Dunkley from the Liberal Party for the first time in decades with defence lawyer Peta Murphy given the job of attacking sitting MP Bruce Billson’s majority at the next federal election due to be held in January next year at the latest. Despite standing on different sides of politics Ms Murphy is familiar with Mr Billson’s former portfolio in cabinet. The 42-year-old Mt Eliza resident is a self-employed barrister. “You’re essentially your own small business,” she said. As for Mr Billson’s removal from cabinet by new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Ms Murphy believed the former Small Business Minister had paid the price for unflagging support for former prime minister Tony Abbott. “Bruce Billson was obviously very closely aligned with Tony Abbott and was hip-and-shoulder with him. It’s a matter for him but he’s now going to have to decide what he does with his future,” Ms Murphy said. “Certainly he was very close to Abbott and all those policies that Abbott put forward that the community has resoundly rejected.” Ms Murphy says she decided to enter the public political fray after years of working behind the scenes helping Labor with legal advice on its policies.
Across brief: Labor candidate for Dunkley Peta Murphy.
“It’s always something I’ve been interested in because what I am interested in is community and policies that really affect the way people live.” The Labor candidate flagged “jobs” as the biggest concern for Dunkley voters. “Unemployment has risen in Dunkley in every single suburb since the election of the Abbott-Turnbull government. People are concerned about jobs for people now but also the really pressing issue of jobs for our youth once they finish their training and apprenticeships.” “It’s a combination of factors. Manufacturing is changing and we’ve lost a lot of the manufacturing base. In recent years there hasn’t been enough attention paid to the smart jobs of the future: science, technology, engineering.”
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