‘Calm seas don’t make good sailors’ Interview with Bob Day, a decade before his shock resignation from the Senate
A DECADE ago, Messenger newspapers sat down to chat about life, business and politics with Liberal Party hopeful Bob Day. Here’s what he had to say.
A DECADE before his business empire came crashing down around him, Family First Senator Bob Day sat down with Messenger Newspapers to talk about life, business and his political ambitions. The published article follows.
A LITTLE gold-plated plaque on Bob Day’s desk says ‘‘calm seas don’t make good sailors’’.
The metaphor that tough times and challenges shape us into stronger people is one the prominent housing industry executive likes to be reminded of.
Mr Day, 54, of Houghton, is soon to face one of his own making, having recently nominated and been given preselection by the Liberal Party to contest the marginal seat of Makin at the 2007 Federal election.
Longtime MP and party candidate Trish Draper recently announced she would quit politics at the next election.
Mr Day admits he will have a fight on his hands.
‘‘Labor, clearly, if they want to win government, they’re going to have to win seats like Makin, they know that,’’ he explained.
‘‘I’ve been around long enough to know you just don’t get too confident about anything.’’
If Mr Day, who has building interests in every capital city in the country, embraces challenges, he is also partial to the odd homespun philosophy.
In the course of conversation, he will speak about his humble beginnings in Gilles Plains and building a company with no money but a pick and shovel he borrowed from his father 30 years ago.
He calls his hard work ethic ‘‘the turtle on the fence post principle . . if you ever see a turtle sitting on top of a fence post, what’s the one thing you know? He didn’t get there by himself’’.
Well-known for his benevolence, Mr Day has been active in several community programs including housing the homeless.
With his status, contacts and resources, he admits there is plenty he can do outside the political arena, so why is he stepping into it?
‘‘We had a problem with youth homelessness in the area so I didn’t sort of go on about why was this or why that, I just thought well let’s build some accommodation, let’s fix it,’’ he said.
‘‘People know I’m not just going to talk about solving the problem.’’
Two of the areas where he is keen to apply his can-do logic are affordable housing and employment for young people.
If elected, Mr Day said he would put pressure on the State Government to change the urban growth boundary and release more land on the fringes of Adelaide.
‘‘All those empty paddocks between Craigmore and Gawler, I mean, they’re sitting there empty and yet there should be houses on them for first home buyers at a price they can afford.’’
He also wants to scrap the ‘‘hundred year’’ old apprenticeships system and replace it with a professionalised version that makes trades attractive to young men and women.
He would push for institutes for building technology to provide students with the latest specialist knowledge, which would help remove the stigma that trades were somehow inferior.
‘‘We’ve got to get rid of this notion that anyone that doesn’t got to university is somehow in a lesser profession.’’
As the election looms, Mr Day has offered his resignation to the boards and committees on which he sits to distance himself from any allegations of a conflict of interest.
He is also preparing to relinquish all his businesses, whatever the result of the 2007 poll.
The campaign is yet to officially start, but Mr Day says he has at least one supporter – a Hope Valley bakery, known for its window slogans and which recently gave him a vote of approval.
Mr Day went down there and had a photo with the owner.
‘‘I said that’s one vote, 89,999 to go,’’ he said.
This article was first published in the Leader Messenger newspaper on August 16, 2006.