By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
SIMON Curtis is having his first tilt at a federal election but is no stranger to politics or to Berwick.
Mr Curtis, running as the ALP candidate for La Trobe, is part of seven generations who have lived in Berwick for the past 160 years.
His grandmother and great-grandmother were housekeepers for La Trobe’s first MP Richard Casey (later Lord Casey, Governor-General of Australia) who was “very good to my family,” Mr Curtis said.
Mr Curtis still owns a picture of himself as a toddler sitting on Lord Casey’s knee.
Mr Curtis is at political odds with this lineage: Lord Casey stood for Labor’s rival, the Liberal Party. Mr Curtis describes his own parents as Liberal-leaning but not “parochial”.
“My family have always discussed politics at home but never in a parochial way. It was always an open discussion.
“The news was always on. Politics was always something I was interested in.”
Mr Curtis studied a politics major at university. His keen sense of “social justice” ignited in reaction to the state’s former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett in the 1990s.
“I could see the damage he was doing to this state.
“I think taking care of people … it’s always been a party of the ethics of my family background and my community background.”
Ahead of the 2 July election, Mr Curtis nominates “saving” Medicare and a strong education system as the electorate’s chief concerns.
He says elderly voters are switching long-held Liberal allegiances over concerns about pension and superannuation changes but especially the expected expenses under Medicare.
“I’ve had doctors say to me they have had patients not gone off to their tests because of the out-of-pocket expenses.
“That’s not the kind of health system we want.”
Mr Wood has promised a suite of projects such as a Puffing Billy centre, Monash Freeway upgrade and funds for the civic-arts precinct Bunjil Place.
Mr Curtis said his vision was for “genuine action for the community”.
He accused sitting La Trobe MP Jason Wood of “never securing any money in the budget for important infrastructure” in the electorate.
“What we see is a Member of Parliament standing for elections since 2004 that has never achieved any infrastructure spend of significance for these suburbs.”
When asked about the Coalition’s $1 billion plan to widen the Monash Freeway, Mr Curtis says “it’s not about making pork-barrelling promises”.
Mr Curtis noted that Victoria’s share of Federal infrastructure funding was about eight per cent despite having about 24 per cent of the national population.
“It’s about ensuring we fund Infrastructure Australia to deliver on these projects of national and local significance, rather than politicians coming out and making bold statements.
“You can’t just have buzz words such as ‘agile’ and ‘nimble’ that this Prime Minister (Malcolm Turnbull) likes to use, while failing to invest in education and stripping jobs from CSIRO.”
