PRECEDE
Re-elected Berwick MP Brad Battin could this week become the new leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria. The man who aspires to become the next Premier has his roots firmly planted in this area, as Star News editor GARRY HOWE explains.
Politicians see a lot of faces through an election campaign, so Berwick MP Brad Battin could be forgiven for not instantly recognising a woman who approached him at the pre-polling booth in the lead-up to last month’s state election.
They had crossed paths before Mr Battin entered the political fray.
He was a young policeman involved in the Newstart campaign at Berwick and Kambrya colleges. She was a teenager dabbling in small-time crime whose path in life was clearly at the crossroads.
“When I saw her she was 15 years old and needing to make a decision whether to continue to commit crime or seek another path in life,” Mr Battin recalled this week.
“Thankfully, she went the right way.”
She and her mother made themselves known on their way in to the polling booth.
Having helped make a difference in her life, he clearly had their vote.
Mr Battin was comfortably returned for a fourth term in the State Parliament and this week faces off with his colleague, Hawthorn MP John Pesutto, for leadership of the Liberal Party.
He thinks he has the numbers and if successful, the Berwick MP will feature on the front page of newspapers and websites across the state.
It won’t be new territory.
An eight-year-old Brad Battin and his sister Linda featured on the front page of the Gazette in the first edition of 1984.
Their father Phil was president of the Lions Club of Berwick and had just handed over the keys to a new firefighting unit to members of the Upper Beaconsfield Fire Brigade, purchased with the help of a $11,300 donation from the club.
Hard work and community involvement were hallmarks of the Battin household.
Phil worked at Neilson Holden in Berwick and his wife Joan at the Heinz factory in Dandenong. She started the Lioness Club of Berwick and ran the local chapter of Meals On Wheels.
Brad was educated locally at Harkaway primary and then at Beaconhills and Berwick secondary colleges. His first job was a paperboy in High Street, Berwick, where he remembers Wednesday being particularly busy, having to juggle both the Herald and the Gazette.
He went on to obtain a Diploma in Public Safety (Policing) with the Victoria Police and a later a Graduate Diploma in Adolescent Health and Welfare from the University of Melbourne. In 2020, he completed a Graduate Certificate in Business.
After his stint in the police force, Brad and wife Jo ran a Bakers Delight outlet at Wheelers Hill, providing an insight into the challenges of running a small business.
He was elected as the new member for the seat of Gembrook in 2010, beating incumbent Labor MP Tammy Lobato, and re-elected to Gembrook in 2014 and 2018 and to the newly redistributed seat of Berwick on 26 November.
In his maiden speech, he mentioned among the role models in his life teachers Peter Slate from Berwick Secondary College and Stuart Daly from Harkaway.
Mr Battin was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in 2014 and has held the shadow portfolios of emergency services, environment, youth justice, the building industry, crime prevention, victim support, roads (metro), road safety and the TAC.
He has been particularly vocal in supporting the CFA from attacks by the professional firefighters union.
Locally, Mr Battin says his greatest achievements have been the development of the Officer Specialist School and his continued advocacy for more mental health support, particularly for young people.
“When we got into government the (education) department said the Officer Specialist School was not needed,” he recalled. “Within 12 months it was full.”
Mr Battin unsuccessfully challenged Michael O’Brien for the Liberal leadership in March 2021 and is confident he is much better placed for his second tilt at the top job, having won the endorsement of two original challengers Ryan Smith and Richard Riordan.
