On October 19 I interviewed Martin Ferguson at his office in Preston.

Martin is the current member for the Federal Electorate of Batman which located in Melbourne’s northern suburbs (such as Kingsbury, Macleod, Northcote, Preston and Reservoir) and has been the representative of this constituency since he was elected in 1996.He is also the Australian Labor Party Shadow Minister for Roads, Transport and Tourism.

In the interview he discussed his visions of the seat of Batman over the next three years if re-elected. He also discussed how he feels his plans for the expansion of Australia’s port and road and rail freight systems will benefit the Australian people.

Furthermore Mr Ferguson also gave some explanation of the plans about where the ALP campaigning will be heading and mentioned some announcements to be made in the lead up to November 24. Finally Martin also gave some insight into the life politicians like him live in the stressful and relentless weeks coming up to a federal election in Australia.

When asked about what his visions were for the seat of Batman over the next three years if re-elected, Martin Ferguson said: “The seat of Batman is an area of change. It is a seat historically made up of a lot of people who work in factories, such as the textile, clothing and footwear factories, automotive industries and associated type employment. Over the last 20 years, a lot of those jobs in Australia have disappeared. Those people were often displaced and unfortunately in their later working years were not rewarded as they should have been. We therefore have a large number of people in hard times in Batman, but because it is close to the city and the airport, Melbourne is now an area highly sought after by young professionals. It’s got good public transport with access to the city...it’s very well located”.

“It’s [Batman] also an area where we have a good university. In fact La Trobe University is probably the biggest employer in the seat of Batman. But we have historically had a lot of people in factories such as...Diana Ferrari shoes”.

“In this electorate the most important issue is a strong economy. We have got to be able to look after our old people, not just in terms of their pensions or superannuation...but the quality of their healthcare, they’re relying more and more on the health services and for some of them dental care is a luxury. Then we have got a lot of young families so it’s about improving our schools and we have got some schools especially in the northern part of the electorate in urgent need of capital renewal and in some instances mergers so that they are better resourced and equipped schools. We also have got issues of unemployment and apprenticeships. How do you improve our road and rail freight systems? You name the issues, they’re there.”

“But also how do we manage climate change and the challenge of a growing economy plus our responsibility to reduce emissions. What do you do to encourage the take up of renewables? How do you invest in clean coal? They’re all complex matters that are going to require a Rudd Labor government to actually do a lot of detailed work and to be required to lead.”

“Of course some of these issues should have been attended to such as the ratification of Kyoto and development of a trading system in terms of reducing greenhouse emissions. We are now in catch up mode so there’s a lot of hard work to do over a short period of time.”

When asked to justify how the various infrastructure plans that the ALP has for the next three years if elected in areas such as new ports, the expansion of road and rail freight systems and broadband networks, Martin Ferguson said “The Australian economy is dependent on the movement of goods and services. The movement of freight is a national responsibility. If you haven’t got decent freight corridors you’re not moving your products Australian citizens want to purchase. We have dairy products, bread, wheat, meat, or whatever.”

“But in terms of the ports...well we are an economy living off the back of a resource boom at the moment. If you have bottlenecks in your coal and your iron ore and your gas ports, then you’re denying yourself export income and you’re reducing the size of the economic cake.”

“Australians are the big beneficiaries for fixing our infrastructure, not just hard infrastructure such as ports and roads and rail freight corridors but also broadband which is so important for building business, so important for education and so important for the delivery of health services in regional communities.”

“And there’s the question of investment in soft infrastructure; the skills. One of our problems at the moment is that we have so much investment on the table for capital development in Australia; we haven’t got the skills base, be that the tradesmen, the engineers, the surveyors. We’ve got infrastructure investment, soft and hard that are absolute priorities.”

“That’s why I say [Mr Ferguson had previously mentioned the importance of young voters considering their votes and understanding that their votes will affect their future] the decisions of the next three years determine where we’re going to be in 30 years. If you don’t fix those infrastructure bottlenecks now; the hard and soft infrastructure, then it’ll deny Australia a brighter future.”

Mr Ferguson then discussed the Liberal Government’s recent $34B tax cuts and how the ALP is attempting to respond to this powerful election incentive for Australian voters if they re-elect the current Howard Government.

“They [The Liberal Party] had the upper hand because they had access to the information. Only once it has been unveiled to us can we finalise our costs and out potential priorities. The benefit of incumbency is the greatest asset to the Prime Minister.”

“Kevin Rudd has announced on behalf of the team our tax proposal to date. That will be one of a series of announcements that hadn’t been made.”

“We made a commitment to try to reduce waiting lists with funding for over 9000 new nurses.”

He said there will be “announcements on TAFE centres and schools, what we do on dental care, what we do on greenhouse. They will continued to be rolled out between now and November 24^th”.

Martin Ferguson also gave an insight into the hectic and stressful lifestyle politicians like him face in the lead up to the election date.

In his discussion about the progress of the election campaign Mr Ferguson said he has been attempting to keep up with the Labor election campaign but was often “Too busy worrying about my own portfolio. I’m getting ready to go to Darwin on Sunday night. So for a front-bencher or for a minister or shadow minister especially in some portfolios such as mine; transport roads and tourism, the election period is very hectic. You live in planes and hotels and now and then you get back to your own electorate. Six weeks is a lifetime”

Martin Ferguson and the Australian Labor Party will have many challenges ahead of them in the lead up to the election. The seat of Batman has been a consistently safe Labor seat with Mr Ferguson getting 71.3% of the vote versus 28.7% for the Liberal Party on a two party preferred basis last election; however the favourable polls for Martin Ferguson and the ALP nationally could still change quickly in the next few weeks and turn in the favour of the Howard Government as they have done in previous elections.

While so far a majority of the national attention has been on issues such housing affordability, taxes and climate change, some announcements Mr Ferguson foreshadowed may bring these infrastructure issues (which affect and are intertwined with so many other national issues) onto the election agenda. Either way, whoever wins this election, any federal party’s plans for roads, rail, ports and broadband will certainly affect Australia and its people in terms of the economy, resources, trade, communication,  the environment and even international relations, now and into the distant future.

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