TRANSCRIPT: Doorstop: Launch of Senator the Hon Bridget McKenzie’s electorate office, Wodonga Vic 26 February 2019

E&OE:

QUESTION:

Can you tell us about your office here?

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

It’s great to have my Electorate office and my Ministerial office here at 172 High Street Wodonga, to serve the local community and the region more broadly. Obviously as Senator for Victoria I have a responsibility to engage with the entire community of Victoria, but I think having the physical presence here in the main street of Wodonga means that people can drop in and get assistance that they need with any issue from my very very helpful staff here. I have also moved my Ministerial office so I have one in Canberra and most Ministers have another one in their home capital city – but I have chosen to have my Ministerial office here in the north-east, in the regional capital of Wodonga, because I truly believe that if we can’t just walk the walk, we can’t just talk the talk of decentralisation – we have to walk more and that means where we have the opportunity to shift career-enhancing Federal Government jobs out to the regional Australia then that’s exactly what we should do. So I have Ministerial staff here as well.

QUESTION:

There was a lot of talk about you moving here a long time before it was officially announced. When did you decide to move back to the north-east?

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

Many years ago, actually, Mark. I was born and bred down the road. It’s where I want to end up – I have to say that nicely (laughter) – but it has always been where I planned to retire…and now that I’m in my 50th year that’s becoming more of a reality. No, it’s always where I hoped to end up. I left the north-east when I was 15 but it has always been where I planned to spend a lot of my adult life, and the opportunity happened. Family reasons haven’t allowed that. So now that all my children are living elsewhere outside my home the opportunity has actually come that I can move back to the north-east.

So yes, we’ve had it on the books for a long time to shift the office to Wodonga. I had to wait for the appropriate site etc. It has taken longer than I would have liked but we’re here now, living here locally and it’s fantastic to be back in the north-east. 

QUESTION:

Your place of residence (inaudible) Bendigo or Melbourne (inaudible)

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

You know what – I’m Senator for Victoria; I can categorically say I have always lived in my electorate and I’m very proud to do so whether that is in Melbourne, Bendigo, Ballarat or indeed Wodonga. It’s important that if you are representing a community you are part of that community. So I have always lived in my electorate and I am Senator for Victoria. But as a National Party Senator I am happiest and feel that I am most valued when I am living in a regional community. It’s where I feel most comfortable, and I believe that if we’re going to take needs and issues of regional Australia to Canberra then we need to be on the ground, very connected to those communities and the people you serve.

QUESTION:

You talk about decentralisation; will we see more departments in Canberra following you this way?

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

If you look at The National Party in Government we’ve not just talked about it, we actually got it here. We’ve got Murray Darling Basin Authority jobs here locally as a result of our advocacy in Government. We made recent announcements only a couple of months ago about indigenous jobs through the indigenous portfolio. And there will be more jobs announced going forward as we continue to roll out our decentralisation agenda. But it’s two-fold: It’s not just about the economic driver that those jobs bring through the multiplier effect into centres like Wodonga but I think it’s actually good for public servants and for the function of Government. If you have those public servants who are responsible for a policy area that affects people in communities like ours then they should be a part of this so they understand the implications of their decisions and their advice to Government.

I think that’s very powerful and actually gives them much better tools to advise Government on how decisions will actually impact those people.

QUESTION:

(inaudible)

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

Well we can shut the door. (laughter). It’s a great example of development. As I said earlier: The guys in the room - before, lot of them have been agriculturalists from the regions, down Kiewa Valley way, right around the district. They can remember Wodonga being a cow town and now you would be remiss if you think it is anything other than one of the top 10 greatest cities of the nation. That’s when you include the capital cities. I think Wodonga needs to be really proud of its trajectory. It’s an exciting example of what is possible in a regional community that (inaudible) its own future. It has the leaders locally to drive that. I’m really happy to be backing that future and our Party wants to see more regional capitals just like Wodonga doing what has happened here today.

QUESTION:

You’ve got Michael McCormack as well (inaudible) what advantages are there being so close to Wagga Wagga, just an hour and a half up the road?

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

Again I think it’s really important that we are embedded in our communities. So in this era, a lack of authenticity that communities feel that politicians and Parliament sometimes reflect is something that the National Party categorically rejects. We are a part of our communities. We’re embedded in our communities, Michael’s family plays for - what is the name of your football team?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

… Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes Goannas…

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

…that play AFL football for in the Riverina, and so you can’t really go to Canberra then without being embedded in the community and be faithful about what our communities need. That’s our great strength, and long may it continue – that National Party MPs and Senators are deeply embedded in local communities, because then you are actually taking your experience to Canberra in advocating for your people and your industries rather than some theoretical construct.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

…and more than that, Bridget McKenzie has been responsible for rolling out so much funding for sporting clubs, country sporting clubs, particularly netball courts and netball change rooms. Why is it fair that young girls and older ones too have to get changed in their cars when they are getting ready for a game of netball? Netball and Australian Football are so much intrinsically entrenched these days in communities. When your footy club is strong, generally so too is your community – but we are enhancing that through Bridget McKenzie’s sport infrastructure grants programs.

I know Mark Byatt, the candidate for the Nationals for Indi, is also very aware of just how important our little communities are, our sporting clubs are, our Rotary clubs are – we want to grow these communities. Bridget and Mark were up at Cudgewa yesterday. They were talking to locals; most importantly they were listening to locals about their concerns, about their issues. Today we’re in Wodonga: 172 High Street is going to be the new focal point for federal politics here in Indi, because people are going to come in, they are going to talk to Bridget, talk to her staff about their issues and concerns. I know there will be action on those concerns and issues; they will be taken to Canberra and certainly they will become part and parcel of the National Party party room.

I’m very much looking forward to Mark Byatt joining that party room after the election – because I need, as Bridget needs, people with the advocacy, with the fighting skills, with the qualities of the calibre of Mark Byatt. I really am backing him for the seat of Indi. The seat of Indi needs a National Party representative to continue the National Party’s outstanding delivery.

And when you look at it across regional Victoria, across regional Australia – 867 mobile phone towers…

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

…You want to make that 1,000?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

1,000! Let’s call it 1,000!  Because the last figures I had was 867 – Bridget has obviously just now funded an additional couple of hundred – that’s fantastic; we want to make sure that if people need to make a call on a mobile phone, whether they’re in regional Victoria, Wangaratta, Wodonga or wherever, that they can do so- and all those little country towns and villages and districts in between.

We want to make sure that regional Australia knows that the National Party has their backs, through the good times and through these difficult times where we obviously have a prolonged drought – which we’re addressing, with a Future Fund, with a $3.9 billion building up to $5 billion Future Fund, which I have to say Labor opposed.  We’re backing small business, whether it’s in High Street – you can see the progress going on around us with the new main street upgrade. But we want to see small businesses – which are already paying their lowest rate of tax in 79 years – progress and develop even further. That’s why we’ve extended the instant asset write-off by another $5,000 to $25,000. That doesn’t come by coincidence or chance – it comes because people like Bridget McKenzie are in there fighting. I need Mark Byatt to be in there fighting as well, to be fighting for the people of Indi, and I know he will do just that. He has a wonderful CV full of regional development. He’s been the Wodonga Mayor for five years from 2008 to 2013, when the sorts of progress that Wodonga is enjoying now began.

So as Bridget just said, this was once a cattle town. It’s now a wonderful city. It’s big enough to get a good cup of coffee and it’s still small enough to care. That’s what I say about these regional capitals – they are wonderful communities: they’re cosmo but they’re also small enough when something goes wrong or somebody’s suffering a bit for people to get around them, they share that pain and they get people through it. That’s the wonderful thing about country Victoria; it’s the wonderful thing about regional Australia, and the National Party wants to back it all the way.

QUESTION:

With the leadership (inaudible) border Riverina (inaudible) be enough of a stronghold?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

It is a Nationals stronghold and Mark Byatt is going to prove just that because he is going to get around these communities. He’s going to listen to the people, whether they are up in the hills or down here in the regional capital – he is going to be out there, putting his best foot forward and making sure he is in all of these communities. That’s what campaigning is all about. But I’m so am so happy, and Bridget’s so pleased too, that we have somebody of the outstanding calibre like Mark Byatt to be wanting to be representing The National Party but more importantly to be wanting to represent the people of Indi, who need good representation. They will certainly get it in him.

BRIDGET MCKENZIE:

If you look at what The Nationals have been able to deliver in Government over the last five years: It is about increasing (inaudible) – if it wasn’t for the National Party driving that in Cabinet, driving that at a policy level, we would not have the Mobile Black Spot Program, we would not have additional satellites that our Government has actually put up.

You talk about rural health and the need to get more GPs into regional communities – it’s the National Party, sitting around the Cabinet table – our Ministers, our policymakers deciding that we need to set up the Murray Darling Medical Schools Network to deliver over 3,000 additional GPs in country communities over the next decade. It was our Ministers fighting within the Government to make sure that was delivered on the ground.

When we look at our sports programs, look at our agriculture programs, our drought support – it is National Party all the way, our Ministers sitting around the Government table advocating for the needs and interests of regional communities. When we ask why Nationals - because we know what our communities need, because we are part of our communities and we’re not afraid to back away from a fight when it’s needed to make sure our communities get the infrastructure they need. Our Roads to Recovery Program, the bridges program that you drive over to get here – they’re the things that our regional communities need to be their most productive, their safest and their most prosperous.

If we are serious about having an Australia that delivers for everybody, a Government that delivers for everybody  not just to capital cities, then you need the National Party sitting at the Cabinet table, and that’s why having a National Party MP as your local Member is the best way to actually get that sort of delivery.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Thanks guys.