With residents in Robinvale and Manangatang able to head to the polls from Monday to elect their state MP in the Mildura electorate, Nationals candidate Jade Benham sat down for interviews with MATT TAYLOR and PETER BANNAN
JADE Benham is initially careful not to play the “mean girls” card.
But for the second time this year, the Nationals candidate arrives at a point where the takedown of her biggest rival in the race to become the next Member for Mildura is nothing short of a political poleaxing.
In a wide-ranging interview, Ms Benham reveals her personal connection to seeing health services improve in Mildura and explains why the Nats are still a relevant force for the regions.
But first, she gave an insight into what motivated her to run for state politics after serving as Swan Hill mayor over the past year.
“I couldn’t fix what I wanted to fix on council,” said Ms Benham, who lives on an almond-producing property just outside Robinvale with husband Luke and their two young children.
“I loved being mayor, but I just realised I couldn’t achieve the real things I wanted to do around planning, water management and other agriculture issues which come from a state level,” she said.
She then directed her attention to the first-term performance of Ms Cupper, who broke the Nats’ hold on the seat at the 2018 poll, winning by just 253 votes against Peter Crisp.
“It’s hard for me to critique her because you get accused of being mean or a bully. But anyone in public office is always open to scrutiny,” Ms Benham said.
“I don’t agree with independent politics. When you’re an independent, you’re effectively in opposition to the government.
“Ali has voted with the Labor Government 70 per cent of the time over the past four years. She has only voted against the government when it doesn’t matter, or when she was part of the (now-defunct) Reason Coalition (with Fiona Patten).”
The figures were disputed by Ms Cupper, who said she had voted with the government 53.2 per cent of the time, with the Coalition 38.3 per cent of the time and with both the government and Coalition in 5.7 per cent of votes.
“Given how poorly Labor represents regional areas outside of Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong, for our representative to vote with government the bulk of the time is a bit tone deaf in terms of the needs of the wider Mildura electorate,” Ms Benham said.
“Our elected representative needs to be reading the room of not only Mildura as a regional city, but we need to be listening and working closer with those who are contributing so much to the state’s GDP.”
It’s not the first time she’s delivered a blunt assessment of Ms Cupper as an MP.
In declaring her intention to run for state politics earlier this year, Ms Benham said: “I’ve had community members in both Mildura and Robinvale who voted for her at the last election come to me and ask that I run against her.
“These people have told me, ‘We voted for her last time because we wanted to give the National Party a wake-up call. We didn’t think it would actually work and now we feel bad’. And you can quote me on that.”
Focus on outlining towns
TRANSPORTATION and health care are the big ticket items for the smaller communities in the electorate, including Robinvale, Manangatang, Sea Lake and Wycheproof.
“Health services punch above their weight and the staff do a tremendous job, but for towns such as Robinvale with a population of 8000 during peak season, it needs to return to a working hospital,” Ms Benham said.
“Not to have a functioning hospital is a real safety concern really.
“At the moment, we are focused on a new hospital in Mildura to include an education integration that will flown to the smaller towns once we get doctors and nurses on the round here.
“You can’t expect one GP that we love and know to do everything, that’s just unsustainable.”
Ms Benham said the deterioration of roads and bridges was also a key issue, with The Nationals pledging $10 billion over 10 years for road maintenance funding.
“There is also the red tape with getting permits for road trains on non-gazetted roads,” she said.
“The time it takes is alarming and people are screaming to get trucks off the roads. The basin rail project needs to be completed and we are putting money into rescoping the works to get it completed in its original form.”
Ms Benham said red tape was “strangling” regional Victoria.
“That’s the main thing I hear from smaller towns … to develop and expand things are just getting caught up in the bureaucracy of everything.”
Focus on health care needs
JADE Benham says the biggest issue of the campaign is health care.
She, along with Liberal candidate Mr Matheson, promised a new $750 million hospital for Mildura if the Coalition was elected to government later this month.
Ms Benham said a new hospital would help address the rising wait times in the Emergency Department and broader service delivery at Mildura Base Public Hospital.
“The criticism is never with the staff there. We have wonderful healthcare staff,” she said. “We have policies to improve service delivery by upskilling nurses and midwives, and that’s by way of scholarships and potentially eliminating student fees for nurses.”
Ms Benham then revealed she owes her life to the doctors and nurses at MBPH.
“They’ve saved my life at the hospital on at least two occasions,” she said.
“I had both of my kids there, and my first child nearly killed me. And then last year in March, I had a bad spill on my motorbike and was taken in with some spinal injuries.
“It was worse than I initially thought, but they patched me up.”
Are the Nats still relevant?
THE traditional stereotype of National Party members being grey-haired men from farming communities is a thing of the past, Ms Benham says.
“Don’t get me wrong, they still make a big contribution to the party, but there are now more women and younger members involved,” she said.
“When (Victorian Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains) Peter Walsh spoke to me in the last couple of years about running, he was keen to have someone younger involved with real-life experience and common sense.
“You only need to look at David Littleproud, who (at 46) is quite young to be in federal leadership (of the Nats).
“There are now a lot of smart women involved in the Victorian Nats, including (deputy leader) Emma Kealy and (the retiring) Steph Ryan.”
Early voting for the election begins on Monday. To find a voting centre nearest to you, visit maps.vec.vic.gov.au/elections.
