EDWARD O’DONOHUE is the MP for Eastern Victoria as well as the current Opposition spokesman for police, community safety and corrections. In the latest of a series of conversations with prominent local politicians, he shares his views on everything from national politics to local issues with Gazette reporters ANEEKA SIMONIS and KATHRYN BERMINGHAM.
ANEEKA: You must be pretty busy. Can you give us a day in the life of?
ED O’DONOHUE: Every day is different, and it’s always about balancing various responsibilities between the electorate and the portfolios and Parliamentary commitments as well so, as I say, every day is different.
This week I was out at Colac yesterday, looking at a police station there that needs upgrading, meeting with concerned residents on the Bellarine Peninsula about police numbers in that area, inspecting the Ringwood Police Station that the coalition government funded and inspecting the upgrade with the local member Dee Ryall.
I’m off to visit the Minaret College at Officer after this meeting and then I’m down to Traralgon for a briefing with the council.
ANEEKA: So, you’re all over? You seem to us like a big Pakenham man but obviously you’re all over the shop most of the week?
ED O’DONOHUE: One of the few benefits of being in opposition is the ability to spend more time in the electorate, so it’s great to be more connected with the community and to get involved in more local issues, so I’m keen to do that to find the upside of where we are and to, hopefully, spend more time with the community and engage more with the community.
ANEEKA: And what are some of the other upsides of being in opposition?
ED O’DONOHUE: You have more ability to direct where you spend your time.
In government and as a minister in government your time is scarce and precious and your diary’s not your own, and that’s fine and that’s the way it should be – there’s a lot of commitments and things.
Opposition gives you the opportunity to reengage with the community more and to remain connected.
I think the first priority of any member of Parliament should be to understand their electorate and to remain connected to their electorate and having a bit more time enables me to do that.
ANEEKA: So you think your relationships have built a little bit more in the last couple of months?
ED O’DONOHUE: I’d like to think that having been in opposition previously and worked with the community a lot I’ve got good relationships that I’ve maintained throughout the period of government and I’ve still engaged in the community through government and I’m proud of some of the things we were able to achieve in government in this area that I don’t think would have been achieved if we hadn’t been elected.
ANEEKA: What are some of those things?
ED O’DONOHUE: Koo Wee Rup Bypass. Labour were not going to do that, they did not commit to it prior to the election.
It’s a fantastic $66 million project that will provide much better connections between the Bass Coast, South Gippsland, Phillip Island to Melbourne but, importantly for this local community, it takes trucks out of Koo Wee Rup and lets Koo Wee Rup return to the more peaceful community that it is.
I think the other two examples of things that we were able to achieve that I doubt would have been achieved otherwise are the Officer Special School and the Officer Secondary College.
The Department of Education were resistant, the previous Labor government were resistant and we were able to play a role in delivering that.
When I say play a role, the community must take a great deal of credit as well, because they campaigned very well, were very effective and built a case that was compelling, and I’m glad we were able to deliver that.
ANEEKA: You said you were heading down to Minaret College later today. What are you doing down there?
ED O’DONOHUE: Just having a look around, I haven’t been down there for a couple of years and I know the school’s grown.
I visited a few times soon after their opening but I think at that time they only had 40 or 50 students and now they’ve got several hundred so just keen to see the progress that’s happened.
I think it’s absolutely fantastic for this area the way Officer has become an education hub.
There is a broad selection of private education that is available, different price points, different religious affiliations and now with the specialist school and the secondary college there’s fantastic, state-of-the-art public education available as well, so for a growing community it’s a fantastic choice for families and I think that bodes well for the future of Officer and, more importantly, for the growth corridor as well.
ANEEKA: What would you say is one of the bigger issues facing Cardinia Shire at the moment?
ED O’DONOHUE: Look, what I’m about to say has been an issue now for a significant amount of time and there’s no easy solution, but local employment for local people is an ongoing challenge.
New families are moving here every day and building a future here and becoming part of the local community.
It’s hard, though, to become engaged in the local community if you’re spending an hour every morning on the Monash, or more, there and back.
Of course, that’s not good for a number of reasons.
So, you know, the council has rezoned the land for employment purposes, some of that land has moved and there’s some employment coming but we need new industries and new employment here.
KATHRYN: What are some strategies that you think might assist with that?
ED O’DONOHUE: Well I was really pleased that Matthew Guy, with the support of Cardinia Shire when he was Planning Minister, was able to rezone land for O’Connor’s (abattoir), and they have significant growth plans so I hope they come to fruition in the fullness of time.
There’s opportunities for increased government services in this area, which will obviously increase employment as well.
I mean, a lot of State Government services are based in Dandenong in this region.
Dandenong’s halfway to Melbourne, so it’s a long way for people from Pakenham and I think we need to see more services out here but, as a Liberal, I also want to see greater private sector investment and the conditions created by the State Government and the Federal Government that are conducive to people setting up their own businesses and conducive to people taking that risk to create local jobs, so the economy is changing.
ANEEKA: You were Crime Prevention Minister for a time and now shadow minister for police, community safety and corrections. How did it all come about when you stepped into the crime role?
ED O’DONOHUE: Being a minister in government is an absolute privilege and to be part of a government that’s making decisions and striving to improve the community is a great responsibility and a great opportunity.
It’s taught me a great deal about how government works and, hopefully, that makes me a better member of Parliament as we move forward.
In the crime prevention space some of the things we were able to do in this local community – the upgrade of Burke Park, things like providing small scale funding to the Cardinia shire concert band so that their equipment is better secured.
Only a couple of thousand dollars but for a wonderful local organisation it can be demoralising if you go for a rehearsal and things have been stolen, premises have been broken into, and that was the philosophy of the crime prevention portfolio, to partner with the local communities to respond to those sorts of issues and build community resilience and support those community organisations, so we’ve retained the portfolio of community safety, notwithstanding the fact that the government has dropped that as a portfolio, because we see it as important.
Individual communities will have individual issues with crime and perceptions of crime and they need to be responded to in an on the ground local way.
ANEEKA: Why were you chosen as crime prevention minister specifically? Have you been touched by crime personally?
ED O’DONOHUE: Not particularly. I’ve got a legal background – I’m a lawyer by training and so maybe that was seen as a good fit but it was fantastic and it was a great opportunity to work with organisations like the scouts and Neighbourhood Watch and Crime Stoppers and just wonderful community groups like the Cardinia Concert Band. It was a great privilege.
Governments often talk about budgets in terms of millions and billions and to see the way that modest funding, tailored the right way and targeted the right way can make a real difference to a group of people, an organisation and help them grow what they’re doing, continue what they’re doing, was fantastic.
ANEEKA: Have you been personally touched by crime?
ED O’DONOHUE: Not in Australia. As a backpacker, I spent several months backpacking through southern and eastern Africa and I was mugged by a group of guys with knives on a train in Johannesburg.
ANEEKA: How old were you?
ED O’DONOHUE: I was about 25 so that’s an experience that’s stayed with me and has made me perhaps a bit more cautious and aware.
ANEEKA: Does it make you more empathic to victims of crime?
ED O’DONOHUE: I was lucky to escape without injury and the like so I don’t think I can ever put myself in the shoes of murder victims and rape victims and those victims that I’ve been privileged to work with and deal with.
Dealing with those people gives you a certain degree of empathy, but you can never fully understand what they’ve been through, but when you hear those personal stories it does give a real meaning to law reform and the concept of sentencing reflecting community expectation and the like.
ANEEKA: Is there a story that stays with you over time? A person you’ve engaged with that has been touched by crime that really stayed with you?
ED O’DONOHUE: I got to know a lady called Caterina Politi quite well, whose son was killed by a one-punch king hit on New Year’s Eve several years ago and as a result of that offence and Caterina becoming engaged with the government and seeking to drive change, we saw Parliament pass last year the 10 year baseline sentencing for one-punch killers, as well as education programs and government funding of a group called Step Back, Think, which is all about thinking about the consequences of what one punch can do.
You know, some people can get into a fight pretty quickly and the consequences are sometimes not much but sometimes the consequences can be a death and driving that message for people to understand the impact, the potential impact that physical violence can have – it can be dramatic and devastating, as it was for Caterina and her family.
As I say, it’s been a pleasure and a privilege to work with some of those people.
Driving the parole reform changes following a number of deaths and murders and rapes of women by people on parole was extremely challenging and most people identify that with Jill Meagher but there were a number of other tragically murdered women who had the same terrible death and so driving the reforms to the parole system and seeing the government allocate $84 million in last year’s budget for much better systems through the prison system and then on parole, much better supervision for people on parole, a dedicated stream of people in the corrections system to monitor the high risk parolees, the doubling of the budget of the parole board, the overhaul of their IT system, a whole range of other things was a really important piece of work and it was great to be a part of that.
KATHRYN: What are some areas that still need work?
ED O’DONOHUE: I think what you see, particularly in a community like Victoria where we’ve got population growth, 100,000 people a year, there’s new issues emerging all the time, so you can never be complacent, you can never rest on your laurels.
There will be new challenges emerging all the time and a local example is what we were doing just the other day with the McGregor Road crossing.
The number of cars using that road has just grown so dramatically in recent years that these issues can grow and develop relatively quickly so in this area, in addition to local employment, the provision of sufficient infrastructure will continue to be a challenge, and I’ll wait with interest for the delivery of the expansion of the Casey Hospital.
I’ll continue to advocate for that, new primary schools for all the new families – there’s going to be a need for continued investment in this growth corridor and one of the jobs of the local member is to make sure that the government and those relevant ministers are informed and provide the resources that are necessary.
ANEEKA: But you obviously don’t think they did understand that based on your release outlining the level crossing issue?
ED O’DONOHUE: For the level crossing to be palmed off to the local council just shows that the Minister doesn’t understand what is required, and I’d invite her to get out here and have a look for herself.
It’s definitely needed and the State Government as the operator of the rail system or the responsible entity for the rail system has a role to play.
Just as I mentioned the other day, we upgraded the Cardinia Road level crossing and the Clyde Road level crossing. McGregor Road needs to be done too.
ANEEKA: What do you think of the State Government’s ice action plan?
ED O’DONOHUE: There are many positive things in the ice action plan and it’s good that the scourge of ice has the attention of all political parties, and the government is putting some investment towards it.
I think there could have been additional investment, for community lead responses.
There was a parliamentary inquiry last year that found that the community in Mildura and Geelong, for example, had worked with community organisations and young people, in particular, can have a real impact on deterring young people away from using ice.
There’s only $500,000 for those sorts of programs in the ice action plan.
I don’t want to quibble too much because responding to ice is a real challenge, there’s many issues that are positive in the action plan and again this is something which needs to be monitored because it will evolve as treatment programs are developed and modified and as we learn more about the impact of the drug on people but on those sort of things we want to be as bipartisan as possible.
ANEEKA: Did you find during your time as Crime Prevention Minister and now as a shadow minister that more and more crimes have a factor of ice involved or drug use involved, compared to years gone by?
ED O’DONOHUE: It’s interesting just talking to police, they say anecdotally that consistently, through chatting to members of Victoria Police, they say the way that ice can impact a person’s behaviour is so much more dramatic than other drugs like cocaine or heroin and that people can be awake for days on end and can commit all sorts of crimes and so it does seem to be different and responding to it is a real challenge.
ANEEKA: But did you find that more crimes had an element of ice involved or drug use involved than years in the past? Has it increased?
ED O’DONOHUE: I think definitely with ice and the types of crimes can lead to violence and to unusual behaviour from a particular person.
Someone who’s quite calm and mild mannered can become uncontrollable and extremely violent when they’re on and that can continue for a long time, where the other drugs have that tendency for violence and also they’re not prone to stay awake for days and days and days so, yeah, it’s a real problem.
KATHRYN: As a follow-on to that, domestic violence is on the rise as well. Is that another particular concern for you?
ED O’DONOHUE: Family violence is one of the challenges of our time and it’s going to take a sustained and long-term response from government and the broader community for many years to come.
It is terribly confronting to see the figures and the way it is so prevalent right across society and it cuts across every demographic, it affects all communities.
It is a serious challenge, the only positive, and I use that word cautiously, is that it does appear that women, because it is predominantly women, feel more able to report and police deal with this differently to what they did 10 or 15 years ago.
KATHRYN: Do you think reporting systems are adequate?
ED O’DONOHUE: The volumes are challenging and police will need better technology and the ability to load data automatically.
There’s improvements that need to be made and that needs to be a priority. The sheer growth is a challenge as well, but it’s good that we are having cultural change where people, women predominantly, feel prepared to report and those reports are then leading to criminal charges.
Assaulting someone behind closed doors is no different to assaulting someone in a shopping centre or down the street – it’s an assault and in the past it’s not always been seen that way.
KATHRYN: Do you think legal processes are handling those issues adequately?
ED O’DONOHUE: I think there’s definitely some things that need to change and some of that’s related to court infrastructure and just looking at this issue through a different prism, so there’s going to be a need for ongoing reform.
The Royal Commission will tease out a number of these issues. We’re on the start of a long journey.
KATHRYN: What are some ways you think we can prevent these issues from arising in the first place?
ED O’DONOHUE: I think men need to take responsibility and so need to understand respectful relationships, equal relationships, calling people out when they behave inappropriately, not covering up or condoning violence and taking the issue seriously which is part of that cultural change.
ANEEKA: Many Victorians seem to be a bit disenchanted with both sides of politics at the moment over the way that East West has kind of played out. Do you have a response do that or understand why they might be feeling a bit cynical?
ED O’DONOHUE: Look, I think the East West Link was a critical piece of infrastructure that Victoria needs.
Whenever there’s a serious issue on the Monash or the Westgate the network can grind to a halt and the East West Link would provide an alternative.
The industries and businesses in our region, there was strong support for East West Link from dairy farmers, Murray Goldman’s in South Gippsland who need to access a port or need to get a product to Melbourne – having an alternative is important to them.
For our local residents who need to cross town for whatever reason or go to the airport, having an alternative is critical.
The previous government spent a considerable period of time developing the plans for the East West Link, working through the issues and signed a contract in good faith and the action this government has taken is unprecedented in paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to not do something. I think it’s a big mistake and I think, for our residents that rely on moving goods by truck or vehicle or driving themselves, it would have been a welcome piece of infrastructure.
The other thing is the jobs. You know, there were many people already working on the project, the East West Link stage one would have created 3700 jobs.
They’re all gone, and whilst the government is talking about alternatives, it takes a long time to procure new infrastructure.
This was a project that was ready to go and at the moment there’s no alternative, so I think it’s a bad decision on many levels.
ANEEKA: Including the Coalition, for signing something when we all knew that Labor wasn’t going to keep the East West Link so the idea that they would throw it out and money would be lost. Do you understand why people might feel a bit cynical about that decision?
ED O’DONOUE: The project was worked on for a long period of time, the contracts were signed before the caretaker period, before the caretaker provisions applied, it’s an important piece of infrastructure that was identified by Sir Rod Eddington when John Brumby as Premier asked him to look at the East West needs in Melbourne, so this project enjoyed bipartisan support for a long time.
I think it’s very unfortunate that such bipartisanship was lost on this important piece of infrastructure.
It would have been a good piece of infrastructure for Victoria, it would have particularly been of benefit to our region and I think it’s a real mistake.
The decision that this government has made to spend hundreds of millions of dollars not to do something just does not make any sense and even above that the message it sends to investors who are looking to do business in Victoria is most concerning.
The issue of sovereign risk has not been an issue in Victoria, governments have honoured contracts that have been signed.
We didn’t particularly like the desalination plant that the previous government built but we honoured the contracts, same with the Myki ticketing system, so this is, I would suggest, unprecedented action by the government.
ANEEKA: And lastly, who’s the best Australian politician you’ve seen in action?
ED O’DONOHUE: That’s a good question… I’d probably go between either John Howard or Julie Bishop.
I think both command an audience very well, both have a clear purpose and direction and communicate clearly with the community.
At a more local level, it’s important for members of Parliament to always be accessible and to be great advocates for their electorates and their communities, I think that’s the first second and third responsibility of every member of parliament, is to be the advocate and champion for their community that they represent and I enjoyed working with Ken Smith when he was the member for Bass.
You always knew where you stood and he was always clear on what his views were, which I think people respected.
ANEEKA: Are you enjoying your relationship with Brian Paynter now that he’s stepped in?
ED O’DONOHUE: I really enjoy working with both Brad and Brian, we work as a team.
Brian is a fantastic person, he’s a great community champion, his involvement with the community is second to none – he’s worked with the Kylie Blackwood foundation, his involvement with the Pakenham Footy Club going back years, a whole range of organisations, Windermere and others and I think he’s exactly the sort of person that we as the Liberal Party want to see in Parliament and the local community wants to see in Parliament – someone that understand their local community who wants to take their advocacy for the community to the next level, to the Parliament and I think he’s doing a great job and both Brad and Brian are good friends of mine and we like to work as a team to represent this area.
