PAUL Matheson is happy to wear the underdog tag as he bids to become only the second Liberal MP to represent the state seat of Mildura.
Craig Bildstien, a former journalist at Sunraysia Daily, held the seat in the state’s north-west between 1988-96, the first and only Liberal MP for Mildura since the electorate was first proclaimed in 1927.
Earlier this month, when the TAB put up a market on the seat of Mildura for the November 26 poll, the sitting Independent MP, Ali Cupper, was a short-priced favourite at $1.15.
Mr Matheson and Nationals candidate Jade Benham went up as a joint “Coalition” betting option at the juicy odds of $5, which has since been reeled into $2.50 after a surge of money for the conservatives.
Ms Cupper, who won the seat at the 2018 poll by a wafer-thin 253 votes on the strength of an 8.38 per cent swing away from sitting Nationals MP Peter Crisp, has now drifted out to $1.50.
In a strong three-cornered race, Mr Matheson is probably the outsider of the trio. But he says, “that’s fine by me”.
“I believe the Liberals have a good plan to improve the lives of people living in north-west Victoria,” he said during an interview with Sunraysia Daily this week.
The Victoria Police sergeant and Sunraysia Football Netball League president kicked off his election campaign about six months ago with a bold promise of building a new $750 million hospital on a greenfield site in Mildura.
It’s something desperately needed for the region, but questions have been asked about how the party arrived at that figure and what the build would include.
Sources say a new hospital and medical learning precinct would cost about $1.5 billion, half of what the Liberals are promising.
However, Mr Matheson clarified that the original funding promise was to “build the shell and you’d ask the Federal Government to fit it out because they are in charge of tertiary education”.
Asked how the party arrived at the $750 million figure, he said: “It came about from speaking to medical experts, hospital management and what it’s cost to build other hospitals.
“The $750 million is the state funds that would go towards it. And you’d then go to the federal government to lobby for additional funding.
“We don’t just want to have a hospital. We want to make it a medical learning precinct. This is where the feds come into it.”
He said that, like his biggest rival Ms Cupper, he had been sweating on the long-delayed release of the master plan for a new hospital before revealing more detail on the Liberals’ plan.
“We want to see what’s in the master plan and then there’d be a public consultation period,” Mr Matheson said.
The master plan was due out in April, but the Labor Government has yet to release it.
Mr Matheson fears that it’s been “mothballed”, and that Mildura has been “taken for a ride by Labor”.
“I think we’ve been fooled over the last 12 months. You only need to look back at Labor’s form on hospital promises at the last election,” he said.
“There was one at Melton, an upgrade at Geelong and one at Torquay. But they haven’t delivered on any of them.
“Labor is very good at making promises close to an election, but it’s often smoke and mirrors, just as we’re seeing here.
“The only way we’ll get a new hospital in Mildura is by electing a Matthew Guy-led Liberal government.”
Making of a political journey
Paul Matheson’s aspirations to serve his community can be traced back to the lessons he learnt growing up in Colac.
He said his parents’ first house was in a housing commission area.
“I got to see how tough life was in my early years,” he said.
“But I soon realised that if you worked hard, you could get ahead. And that’s what my parents (his mother was a nurse and father a contractor) did.
“Our family was able to progress through sheer hard work, and this is where my core values come from.”
A defining moment in his life came at the age of 15 when his father was tragically killed in a tractor accident.
It forced a young Matheson, whose two siblings are several years younger, to step up and become a leader in the household.
Before he embarked on a career in the police force, he worked on farms in regional Victoria and completed TAFE courses in agriculture, including wool and fibre classing.
While he was doing mixed farming, he became heavily involved in football and cricket clubs, working in pubs at night to get ahead, and was even a garbo back in the days when they picked up rubbish bins with their own gloved hands on the street.
At the age of 20, he decided to sign up for a career with Victoria Police.
After stints around Melbourne and the state’s south-west, he was posted to Mildura 13 years ago for work, the year his daughter started prep at Sacred Heart Primary School.
He then became affiliated with Imperials Football Netball Club, serving on the committee for a few years, and coming out of playing retirement for a second time to run around with the Green Machine.
Matheson is now in his third year as SFNL president, amid a pandemic-crushing period for sport.
The married 47-year-old is also a sergeant with local police, working on general duties.
He is on long service leave while he campaigns to start his political career.
Plan to reduce cost of living
Paul Matheson says the rising cost of living is another “huge issue” for Victorians.
“It really is. But we’ve come up with a number of solutions about reducing the cost of living,” he said.
“We have an energy policy where we’ll subsidise solar panels and batteries for homeowners and rental properties.
“And we’ve said we’ll lock away our natural gas resources so they are available for Victorians to use, because we need a reliable baseload of power.
“There’s a place for renewable energy, but we need to diversify because there’s going to come a time like now, when places are flooded and they don’t have power.”
The Liberals are also promising a “25 per cent infrastructure guarantee spend in regional Victoria” if they are elected next month.
“In the last State Budget, the Labor Government only allocated 13 per cent to spend in the regions, so we’d double that,” he said.
“The latest agriculture production figures show that Mildura is the biggest-producing LGA in Australia.
“We deserve a bigger slice of the pie when it comes to infrastructure spending.”
‘We need a seat at planning table’
Mr Matheson says it is important that voters consider the need to have a local MP involved in policy-setting and key decision-making.
In a critique of the local incumbent independent MP’s performance, he said: “I would never knock Ali’s determination.
“But the reality is that unless you have a seat at the party table where policy and decisions are made, there are no guarantees.
“You can be a squeaky wheel all you like, but four years is a long time to hang your hat on passenger rail.
“I want to see a feasibility study into whether passenger rail is warranted in Mildura, but Labor has already come out and said ‘no’ to passenger rail here.
“At least the Liberals are putting forward a long-term economic plan to rebuild Victoria.”
Asked whether the Liberal brand was damaged in its loss at the federal poll in May, he said: “There’s a lot of work to be done around the Liberal federal brand.
“But I think the Liberal state brand is different to that.
“I think people voted for change at the federal poll, and that happened in South Australia as well.
“I’m pretty comfortable in saying that people will do the same in Victoria next month, because we’re a genuine alternative and we’re ready to govern.”
Labor is a $1.10 favourite to win the election, while the Coalition is $7.
NEXT WEEK: Ali Cupper (Independent)
KEY ELECTION DATES
November 1: Issue of writs
Nov 2: Nominations and postal-vote applications open
Nov 8: Electoral roll closes at 8pm
Nov 10: Nominations for registered political party-endorsed candidates close at noon
Nov 11: Nominations for independent candidates close at noon. Ballot draw at 1pm
Nov 14: Early voting opens
Nov 26: State Election day
