With the boldness of youth, Liberal candidate James Moody is undaunted in challenging for the safe Labor seat of Bruce.
His chief opponent is sitting federal MP Julian Hill secure on a 14 per cent margin, the seat has been held by the ALP since 1996 and Labor is ahead in national polling.
“It’s not impossible,” the 26-year-old Mr Moody says.
“We’re going to run hard to get Bruce back into action. If we can achieve that, the rest will fall into place.”
Though running in his first election, the Young Liberal state secretary is not short of political experience.
He’s been toiling in student and grass-roots politics for eight years, cutting his teeth in federal MP Jason Wood and state MP Brad Battin’s election campaigns.
In 2019, Mr Moody launched the group South Eastern Young Liberals as president.
He sides with the Liberal Party because it represents people working hard to better their lot in life, and those willing to “get out there and take a bit of a chance”, he says.
Born in Noble Park, growing up and going to school in Berwick, Mr Moody says he’s lived in the South East for his whole life.
A major motivator for him was that Bruce had been “left behind” during Covid, Mr Moody says.
He attacks the State Government for its shutdown of industries and jobs during the Covid pandemic.
“I don’t think you’d see such harsh lockdowns if we had a State Liberal Government in Victoria.
“These restrictions didn’t have thought for people’s mental health, on young people and people locked up in aged care.
“What’s particularly disappointing is that for two years, the local member for Bruce (Mr Hill) didn’t say anything about it and cheered this lockdown on.”
Mr Moody concedes – to paraphrase Prime Minister Scott Morrison – that the Liberal-Nationals Federal Government response to Covid has not been “perfect”.
The vaccine roll-out had been “perhaps a bit slow out of the blocks”, Mr Moody said.
“But when you look at the end result it was as good as anywhere in the world.”
Another ‘success’ was the Federal JobKeeper scheme had kept businesses and jobs alive.
The Government did “as well as it could in the circumstances”, he said.
“There were mistakes of course but the pandemic was an unprecedented time for everyone.
“Expecting perfection in a time like Covid is not going to happen.”
Crime and safety, road and rail infrastructure and jobs are his key concerns, accusing Mr Hill of not doing much to keep major companies and jobs from “leaving” Dandenong.
“Dandenong used to be the place to do business.”
He also wants schools to “get back to basics” and focus on key skills like Maths and English.
Like many, his family’s story is a migration story.
His politics were influenced by his ‘Tata’ and ‘Nana’ (maternal grandparents) who migrated from Argentina to Hallam in the 1980s.
“(My grandfather) instilled in me relatively early what causes nations to regress and go through tough times is the inaction of people to really aim for the good.
“For good things to happen, you actually have to go out there are make them happen.
“You have to do the work or it won’t be done at all.”
His parents were both “stories of the Austalian dream”. His father grew up in an “absolutely working-class background” and setting up his own business.
“He worked his butt off to give his family a better life”.
In her late teens, his mother migrated from Argentina with her parents and four siblings. She couldn’t speak a word of English but went on to university.
Mr Moody gravitated to politics, even while graduating in law with honours and a Masters in international law at Monash University.
In the past two years at Mr Wood’s electorate office in Berwick, he’s advised businesses on JobKeeper and other Covid-lockdown relief grants.
His tutelage under Mr Wood had been an “unbelievable experience”.
He says he saw first hand the “hard work” required to “get things done”.
