FEDERAL ELECTION 2016
It’s on: the battle for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull triggered a double dissolution of the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house) and announced the federal election will take place on Saturday 2 July. Candidates and voters across the country face the prospect of a gruelling eight-week election campaign ahead of polling day as the main contenders for the seat of Dunkley - covering an area from Seaford to Mornington - square up to succeed outgoing Liberal MP Bruce Billson who is retiring from politics after a 20-year plus political career. The main suburbs in the Dunkley electorate include part of Baxter, Frankston, Frankston North, Frankston South, Langwarrin, Langwarrin South, Mt Eliza, Mornington, Seaford and part of Skye. NEIL WALKER spoke to the Liberal and Labor contenders, analysed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s first visit to Mornington during the campaign last week and asks Bruce Billson what’s next on his horizon.
Lawyer vs Lawyer: Murphy vs Crewther ‘It’s time for change’
‘Build on Libs’ legacy’
LABOR’S candidate for Dunkley Peta Murphy admits succeeding Liberal MP Bruce Billson as the area’s representative in Canberra will be a challenge but she reckons it is time for change, and not just on the personality front. “Bruce has served this community for 20 years and they’re certainly big shoes to fill but I think people are ready for a new voice,” she told The Times. “It has been a Liberal seat for 20 years and it is time for a fresh approach. It’s time for Dunkley to have someone with a different perspective to really focus on health and education.” Internal Labor polling shows the party is in with a 52-48 per cent chance after preferences of wrestling back the seat from the Liberal Party after two decades of Mr Billson going into bat for Dunkley. Mr Billson’s majority was 5.6 per cent at the 2013 election. The 42-year-old lawyer, who moved to Mt Eliza in 2012 to be closer to public sector consultant husband Rod Glover’s family, wasn’t always destined to enter the political fray but a speech by former Labor cabinet minister Lindsay Tanner at the University of Melbourne changed the course of her life. She admits to “always being politically aware” and being “inspired by the idea of a bigger, smarter, bolder country being put forward by Paul Keating” but it was Mr Tanner’s speech at her alma matter about looking out for the less fortunate that swung her decision to join the Labor Party. A career as a criminal lawyer followed university followed but Ms Murphy says she was determined not to spend her whole life in the political bubble. “I was lucky enough to have a role as a justice policy adviser for a number of years in my mid20s but made the conscious decision to go out and have a career because I did not want to be someone who talked about policy from a theoretical point of view or had always been involved in politics and had never had a career or profession in the real world.” Practising law as a criminal defence lawyer certainly opened her young eyes to the importance of education to break “cycles of dysfunction” in low socio-economic areas of communities. “I don’t bring one narrow personal experience. I’m a university-educated lawyer but I also understand other things. “My career has reinforced to me the importance of education. My parents were schoolteachers … I’ve always grown up being told education is really important. “My three sisters and I got told by our family that public schools are important, the public school system is what we went through. “Education is what gives people the start in life and being able to have the education that makes children see their own strength and see the possibilities in their own future to get out there and be part of the community is the key to a good, prosperous community.” Over the years her work as a defence lawyer has seen her speak up on behalf of some accused defendants who some may regard as “the worst of the worst” such as murderers and Melbourne man Joseph Thomas, dubbed ‘Jihadi Jack’ by the tabloid media, whose conviction for receiving funds from Al-Qaeda was overturned on appeal in 2013. While not naming specific defendants, Ms
LIBERAL candidate for Dunkley Chris Crewther is a new convert to the Frankston and Mornington area’s many charms having grown up in country Victoria but the 32-year-old sometime international lawyer and former CEO of the Mildura Economic Development Board says he has always had an interest in helping out the community no matter where he has lived. “I made my home in Frankston last year and set up my own small business in agricultural exports but before that I’ve been the chief executive of an economic development corporation in regional Victoria as well as an international lawyer in Kosovo. “Each of these roles are also ways in which I’ve been able to help the communities where I’ve lived at the time.” Mr Crewther, who earned a Masters degree specialising in International Law gained at the Australian National University in Canberra, had an early political awakening while at school in year 11 in Horsham when he attended youth parliament at Camp Manyung in Mt Eliza. He was the unsuccessful Liberal federal candidate for Mallee at the 2013 election. “I spent a lot of my time growing up in country Victoria and my wife Grace grew up in Blacktown in Sydney so she’s a city girl at heart. In terms of a place to live this area is the perfect combination between the country, the city and the coast. It’s a good place to raise a family.” The couple welcomed young daughter Yasmin to the family earlier this year. The newcomer shrugs off rumblings about ‘carpet-bagging’ after winning the Liberal Party preselection contest to be the candidate for Dunkley, seeing off a strong field of seven other local candidates including former Carrum MP Donna Bauer and Kingston councillor Paul Peulich. “It’s quite a democratic process. We had 84 minutes of questions, a speech, about 200 delegates or so in the room to choose the candidate. There were eight strong candidates and each should be commended for being willing to put up their hand to represent this area,” he told The Times. “In the end I won their support so I’m just getting on with campaigning.” Mr Crewther says he will “run a strong positive grassroots campaign to engage with the electorate” because “solutions are what people are really looking for as opposed to the politicking of the day”. “One key thing is delivering more job opportunities for Dunkley families and that’s what I want for my family – not only job opportunities but meaningful job opportunities that give people a purpose in life. “People want the best for their children and grandchildren no matter where they live in the world. Job creation would be my number one priority but linked in with that is investment in infrastructure because without infrastructure you can’t connect people properly or help and grow businesses. “Tackling issues such as the scourge of ice are also important in terms of giving people opportunities locally – particularly young people. You need to give them things to do, education opportunities as well as work opportunities locally.” He says he will draw on his experience in Kosovo, in the former Yugoslavia, when he helped return citizens’ property to them after the late 1990s civil war there to have empathy for the
PAGE 10 Frankston Times 16 May 2016
Labor candidate Peta Murphy
Murphy says defence lawyers who work in the legal aid sector do not get to pick and choose clients. “It can be very difficult. I think it is important to really understand what some people’s lives are like in order to bring some insight into the policies that affect people but there is no doubt it is difficult sometimes to have to be faced with some of the worst of humanity,” she said. “My career as a defence lawyer – even when I was working at a private firm – was working on legal aid cases and defending the poor, the destitute, the disadvantaged and very damaged. It’s not a moral judgement, it’s about making the system work for everyone. “I think people understand that a criminal justice system that is accessible and fair is actually what’s important for everyone and society.” Citing her mentor Duncan Kerr, former Labor member for Dennison and Federal Court judge, (“a decent man with good values”) Ms Murphy says she learned the value of serving the community. “Locally, the issues are often about education. Not surprisingly people with young children and children who have started school are really concerned about making sure their kids get to go to the best possible school and have the best possible education. Issues about funding public education and training and brought up a lot.” Health funding is an issue close to her heart after undergoing treatment for breast cancer five years ago. She credits Australia’s health system with saving her life. Voters’ discontent with political parties is also never far from her thoughts. She is a leading light on the hill in Open Labor, a self-described “group of people who seek renewal of the Australian Labor Party and a more open, optimistic and decent politics in Australia”, and admits the ALP can do more to make politics inclusive despite having made some good process in the past few years. “I think the party and leader Bill Shorten have made some good steps. Things like having rankand-file membership involved in the election of the parliamentary leader has reinvigorated the party but we should keep working on it. There are a lot of people out there who would be involved in a political party that would be attracted to Labor if we keep making ourselves open and transparent to serve its members.”
Liberal candidate Chris Crewther
less fortunate if he wins office. “In Kosovo I was resolving property claims before an international tribunal for claimants who lost their property due to the war. By giving people their possessions back you’re helping them get on with their lives.” Being a middle man in negotiations is a skill he’s brought to his small business. “My wife is originally of South Korean background so she has a number of connections. She grew up in Sydney from the age of three but she grew up in South Korea so she has a number of connections there with people wanting to import high-quality farming goods,” he said. “Given my country background and my previous role in economic development in regional Victoria I also have a number of connections with exporters who are producing those highquality goods but aren’t necessarily exporting to markets like Korea, Hong Kong and elsewhere. So the job primarily is linking those exporters with those importers. It’s sort of a bridge role.” Mr Crewther hopes to perform a bridge role in representing Dunkley in Canberra. “I’m part of a Liberal team that will form a Liberal government that will help to assist small business to grow the economy and actually tackle social disadvantage. But we’re also a party that social and environmental issues as well. I think the economy, the community and the environment need to be considered in any development. “I do have a say in this current government with Malcolm Turnbull.” Jobs for Dunkley residents is high on his political agenda. “I’m really proud my wife Grace and I and our daughter live in Frankston. It’s an area – that, if we have the right positive outlook as Bruce as done over the past 20 years – we can actually grow this area economically, socially, environmentally. There is a lot of potential in this area and creating opportunities for families will be my number one priority.” Mr Crewther said he intends to stay in Frankston after the election. “If I’m unsuccessful I’ll continue running my small business here and my home is here and my family is here. I don’t see anything changing.”