A NEW bridge for Mildura and embracing Australia’s abundance in coal are priorities for Family First’s Bernie Finn going into this year’s Federal Election.
The former Victorian state Liberal MP was expelled from the party in 2022 and has since had stints as an independent, with the Democratic Labour Party, and now Family First – and is running for the Senate.
It is the first Federal foray since 1983 for the Melbourne-based Mr Finn, who had a three-day visit to the region this week.
“I had a meeting yesterday with one of (the) local councillors and he told me about the need for more river crossings which I am very keen to follow-up on if I am elected,” he said.
“If that occurs, I would like to spend a couple of days up here with him and he can talk about exactly what’s needed.”
On the cost-of-living front, Mr Finn slated everything back to the price of energy.
“It’s just insane when you think we have enough coal to last us 300 years, enough gas to keep us going for another couple of hundred, and we are not allowed to use it,” he said.
“We are being pushed into this extraordinary situation where families are deciding whether they are going to pay their electricity bills or eat.
“If we were able to get power prices down, which we can very easily if we were fair dinkum about it, we will be able to slash the cost of living.”
Raised on a farm near Colac, Mr Finn said he thought Australia was “flogging itself” by pursuing emissions reductions policy.
“If there is a thing called man-made climate change, and I personally don’t think there is, it’s not Australia’s fault and Australia shouldn’t be paying for it,” he said.
Elsewhere on the international front, the 63-year-old said US President Donald Trump was “just what the world needs” while he said he hoped Peter Dutton would become prime minister after the election – if he wasn’t removed by his own party.
“We will support Dutton against the left of his own party. There are a number of people in the Liberal Party who want to knife, want to get rid of him before he’s even there,” he said.
“Family First in the Senate will give him the stronger backbone he needs.”
The religious conservative – who was first elected a state MP in 1992 – joined Family First after narrowly missing re-election at Victoria’s 2022 state election.
“I thought I would give it away, go off to a beach in Queensland, but the bloke upstairs was tapping me on the shoulder and saying ‘excuse me, you’ve got things to do here before you go’, so I rang (Family First national director) Lyle Shelton and said how would you like me to run for the Federal Senate,” Mr Finn said.
“There are a lot of state issues that are now federal issues; the things I was talking about 20 years ago in the State Parliament are now federal matters.”
