Newsroom

1 December, 2003

Interview Transcript

Champions of the Bush Executive Officer Darren Chester ABC Statewide Victoria, Presenter Kathy Bedford,

Topic: Political leaders - a voice for country communities

Bedford: With apologies to Eddie Maguire... it's going to be a big week in politics.

Tomorrow the Labor Party will elect a new leader following Simon Crean's announcement last week that he would not lead the ALP to the next election.

And if you believe the political commentators... that election could come sooner than you think. With an opposition on the ropes, all the talk is that Prime Minister John Howard may rush to an early poll. Oh goodness... don't we have that to look forward to.

But what does it all mean for country Victorians? We want to hear your views this morning. Do you think you are well represented in country Victoria. Let us know what you will look for in the candidates who stand for Federal seats. 1300 303 468.

And if you'd like to comment on Labor Party leadership, you're more than welcome to do that this morning as well.

Joining us on the line is Darren Chester from Champions of the Bush, hi Darren.

Chester: Good morning Kathy.

Bedford: Now we have to very careful talking to you about politics... you need to declare your allegiance right up.

Chester: Absolutely Kathy - I've got a vested interest. I actually ran as a candidate last year in the Gippsland East electorate as a National Party candidate. Like a lot of politicians... or wannabe politicians... I ran because I thought I had something to offer my community. For me, about 7500 people agreed but 12,000 people agreed with someone else.

As you find out very quickly in politics - and I think Simon Crean is finding out at the moment - there's no prizes for coming second.

Bedford: Darren do you think it would be easier to run as a candidate in a regional areas or in a city or metropolitan area?

Chester: That's a really interesting point Kathy because regional electorates are so big - some of our electorates are 20,000 to 30,000 square kilometres.

Just getting around to those towns some times can be very difficult. So it's a big task for someone who is going to take on a regional seat in comparison to some of the metropolitan seats which are four or five suburbs - they are nowhere near as big - just geographically it is very difficult to get around some of the country electorates.

Bedford: That same reasoning then could we argue that country people are not represented strongly enough.

Chester: I think there's a real issue there for country people. In our state and our federal parliaments it's about two to one - two city seats for one country seat - just because of the weight of population.

On top of that, it is difficult for the sitting members to get out and talk to all of their constituents.

With the major population centres in the cities, the nature of our system is always going to be, it is going to be tougher for us to get our voices heard. It creates this situation where the country MPs have to constantly fight hard to get their voices heard on our behalf - even within their own parties - there's a lot of competing interests.

Country voters always want to feel that their voices are being heard - so it does make it hard for the country MPs.

Bedford: Although, just thinking historically, and my political history is not the best, we've had quite a few Prime Ministers who've been country MPs.

Chester: I think there's been a shift in the balance now that's gone on in the last 20-30 years. There's more concentration of our focus on the cities as the centre of power.

I'm not pretending to be a great student of Australian political history either Kathy - but it seems to be a real city influence now on our decision-making processes.

Bedford: We don't have to go too far back - Malcolm Fraser was from the Western District.

Chester: Certainly - and he was presented as a very strong champion of country areas. Although of course once you start talking politics, at least half of the population will disagree with us.

Bedford: With our current crop of politicians - and as we said earlier, you once ran as a National Party candidate, so people can take what you say, as they like Darren. But do you think our current politicians are doing a good job for country people?

Chester: Like we said, we've all got our biases - and I guess the decision comes back to the voters at the next election.

If you look around Victoria at the moment - I think we've got a few standouts.

Naturally, I think Peter Ryan has done a good job on behalf of the Nationals in the way that he presents issues on behalf of country people.

Bedford: But you would say that (laughing).

Chester: Of course I'd say that - but I also think that Labor's Minister for Regional Development John Brumby has a very good understanding of country issues and you'd expect that as well because he's come from the Bendigo area.

I'm not sure though in Mr Brumby's case if enough of his fellow Ministers are sharing his concerns at the moment about the future of regional Victoria and that's a challenge he faces.

At a Federal level, I think the Nationals' John Anderson is doing a good job presenting country issues.

And the big challenge comes for the Labor Party tomorrow because they've got to choose who they are going to take to the country voters and I'm not sure that either of Mr Beazley or Mr Latham would have strong claims at the moment of being seen as a real champion of country areas.

So they've got a tough decision tomorrow in terms of how they are going to appear before country voters in the future.

Bedford: We've got a caller on the line.

Talkback caller: Commenting on Labor leadership, suggested it's just more of the same, proposed Julie Gillard should contest leadership.

Bedford: I don't think there's been any suggestion that any of the women would take up the chair, Darren, what do you think of that one?

Chester: I've seen Julia Gillard perform quite a bit lately and I think she's done a really good job. It's not the craziest suggestion - why should it just be the two blokes fighting it out - it's a very interesting suggestion.

Bedford: When it comes to who they appoint as their leader, I wonder are the Labor Party just thinking amongst themselves on what they as a party want or I guess they've got to think who's going to win them the election. How much is it about what the voters want?

Chester: That's the really tough question for them. They've got sitting MPs remember who got in, in 2001, with Kim Beazley as the Leader and some of them are in quite marginal seats. They'll be thinking, and self interest comes into this, they'll be thinking 'I got in last time with Mr Beazley, maybe I'm better off sticking with him'.

I think Beazley would be regarded as the safer option for a lot of the sitting MPs. It would be a bit more radical to take on Mark Latham. Everyone accepts that he's a little bit more aggressive in a lot of ways, in the way he handles the media.

The MPs will be thinking about where their best chances lie of getting re-elected, but I'm not sure that our political leaders are that in touch with what the average person is thinking about at the moment.

There's a big issue - as soon as there is disunity in a party - people just switch off. They don't want to hear about the in-fighting and everything else.

They will have to get behind their leader and take a united position forward. Whatever happens tomorrow, the Labor Party really has to get their act together in that particular area - they must get behind whoever they elect.

Bedford: As somebody who has actually put their hand up to try and run for a seat, you must have spoken to a lot of the voters out there in your electorate. Do you think that people really do care or is there a bit of an attitude that we vote, just because we have to?

Chester: Unfortunately there is an element of that and it's true - we're so laidback that many people seem to just take their vote for granted. Which is a pity because you look around the world and there's a lot of people fighting for the right to be able to vote. It's a great privilege to be able to choose our leaders.

But on the other side of things, there are people who are very passionate about the issues affecting regional communities and they are very keen to get the right person for the job.

Those people are particularly interested in issues like the decision-making processes. They really want to make sure that in the future we are involved, we get asked for our opinions on different things. So you get a real big mix of people - some of them are very passionate about who they are going to elect and others, you are right, couldn't care less.

Bedford: Thankyou Darren for caring and for joining us on the program this morning.

Chester: A pleasure always Kathy.

Bedford: Darren Chester from Champions of the Bush - Bill's given us a call in Traralgon.

Talkback callers on leadership issues

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