Going to the People – Election Campaign 2013

The Australian federal election 2013 was a clear win for Tony Abbott and the Liberal/National party coalition. But some individual campaigns were specially outstanding. Sarah Henderson MP was born in Geelong and is a former Australian broadcast journalist known for her work on the ABC’s 7.30 Report and for her consumer advocacy on The Investigators. In 2010, Henderson narrowly lost her first attempt at Corangamite to the ALP incumbent Darren Cheeseman. In 2013, however, Henderson won the seat with a 4.6 per cent swing to the Liberal Party. On Wednesday 2 October 2013, joined Sarah Henderson joined Michelle Rowland MP to address The Sydney Institute on some of the highlights of election campaign 2013.

PEOPLE NOT PARTIES

SARAH HENDERSON

This is a great opportunity to speak tonight. As someone who’s been an MP for a week, I am delighted to speak about my campaign.  Thank you to Gerard and Anne Henderson for their very kind invitation.  I also wish to acknowledge my new parliamentary colleague, Michelle Rowland.

Full disclosure is required up front – Gerard is my first cousin once removed, the cousin of my father Michael who very sadly died some 18 years ago. I also wish to acknowledge another very special person here tonight – the renowned composer and my aunt Moya Henderson.  Moya is one of those very talented women who never gives up; so I am very proud to bear the name Sarah Moya.

The first time I met Gerard was in 1984.  Gerard was John Howard’s chief of staff and I was a young Channel 7 reporter in Canberra for the December Federal election.  Somehow I ended up at a Coalition commiseration party. It’s probably fair to say that the seed of an idea to run for federal parliament was formed on that night, some 29 years ago.

That said, I live in a political household – my partner Simon Ramsay is a Victorian MP – and I grew up in one. My father unsuccessfully contested the marginal Victorian seat of Geelong West back in 1982. This became Geelong which my mother Ann unsuccessfully contested in 1988. It was a seat she ran for again – and won – in 1992.

In her seven years in the Victorian parliament, my mother quickly developed a reputation as a very proactive and effective local member.  She sadly also died but remains a real inspiration to me.

In her second term, she joined Jeff Kennett’s cabinet as the Minister for Housing and Aboriginal Affairs.   In 1999, she lost her seat by 16 votes. The Coalition also lost government. With the support of three independents it allowed Steve Bracks to form a minority government.

Our family specialises in marginal seat politics – the highs and the lows.

After a career working in broadcasting, commercial law, running my own small business and working in commercial and legal roles for News Corporation in New York, Network Ten Sydney and National Indigenous TV, in 2010 I ran for the federal seat of Corangamite, then the most marginal seat in Victoria.

We ran a strong, grassroots campaign but in the face of a 1.5 per cent swing against the Coalition in Victoria, the swing we received in our favour was not enough.  Corangamite was the last seat to fall for the Coalition. We fell short by 771 votes, becoming the most marginal seat in Australia.   It allowed Julia Gillard to do a deal with three independents and form a minority government.  It was 1999 all over again.

On 7 September, after a 15 month campaign, we prevailed and I was elected the 14^th Member for Corangamite.  This time, we were 7171 votes ahead.

My election campaign focused on the importance of being a strong, local voice. As someone who was born, raised and educated in Geelong, I wore the local badge very proudly, very strongly, every single day.

Corangamite is probably the most beautiful electorate in the country –  it is nearly 8000 km2 and includes wonderful national parks, amazing beaches and large tracts of farming land.   We take in the southern suburbs of Geelong, Colac, the Surf Coast, the Bellarine and stretch almost all the way through to Ballarat.

We are the home of the iconic Great Ocean Road, the Geelong Cats and Deakin University – and have a history rich in agriculture and manufacturing.

With 60 towns and suburbs to win over, we ran dozens of local campaigns – on mobile phone blackspots, dangerous school crossings, roads, doctor shortages and inadequate postal services.  My message was that I was there for all communities – big and small – and that I was there to listen and to act.

With help from many wonderful volunteers, I door knocked more than 20,000 homes, and held hundreds of listening posts.

Underpinning our campaign was the importance of jobs – and building the infrastructure for the future.

Geelong was a city that had been hit particularly hard by Labor policies like the carbon tax – job losses were mounting and one of our most important local companies – Ford – announced that it would be closing its manufacturing operations.

Of course, Labor’s ongoing dysfunction and division weighed heavily on voters’ minds.  As did Darren Cheeseman’s decision to condemn Julia Gillard’s leadership eighteen months before the election.

But it was important for us to run a very positive campaign. We committed to duplicate the Princes Highway all the way to Colac – the road where Tony Abbott had his close call back in 2010. We committed $1.5 billion to the East West link in Melbourne which would deliver enormous benefits to Geelong commuters.

But perhaps most importantly for our local campaign, we fought for and delivered a $25 million commitment to the upgrade the Great Ocean Road .. which was matched by another $25 million from State.  Here was an iconic tourism asset that contributed $2.1 billion to our national economy – and it was falling into disrepair.

This upgrade was so important – for jobs, tourism, transport links, safer roads, coastal communities and to help grow our regional economy. We decided to fix it – in contrast, my opponent Darren Cheeseman opposed the upgrade.

Much to the horror of local councils, regional leaders, business and tourism bodies, Mr Cheeseman claimed that the Liberals’ real agenda was to dynamite cliff tops along this iconic road and build four lane highways. The claims were not only dishonest but utterly ridiculous – community leaders came out in force against Mr Cheeseman – and in the end his campaign was left with very little credibility.

During my campaign, I also spoke about the importance of compassion and integrity and how that would be central to how I did my job if I had the honour of being elected.  That resonated.

As a local member, I believe it’s important that people feel that they have, in their local MP, a strong local voice willing to stand up for them.

Over the next three years, each and every day, that’s how I’ll be serving the people of Corangamite.