MP Andrew Broad is the fly-in pollie

HE grew up on an Aboriginal mission, toured the country with a rock band - and ended up serving the Mallee. Andrew Broad’s electorate is so big he needs a plane to get around.

Andrew Broad, Victorian Farmers Federation President, on his farm in Bridgewater.

POLITICIANS take many roads to get to Canberra. Some come from the ranks of the unions. Others were lawyers, or athletes, journalists, political staffers.

Andrew Broad came from an Aboriginal mission, via a touring rock band, before the more predictable route of the Victorian Farmers Federation presidency.

Broad, 39, is the Nationals member for the federal seat of Mallee, the sprawling rural electorate that makes up one-third of Victoria’s land mass, from Mildura in the north, down the Murray River, to just past St Arnaud in the east, south of the Grampians, to the South Australian border.

The electorate is so large Broad, a farmer, flies around it in his own plane, a two-seat Brumby.

Broad was born on an Aboriginal reserve, as it was known then, in Carnarvon, Western Australia, to Christian missionary parents. His mum worked with indigenous women and children and his dad flew light planes around one of the most remote parts of Australia.

“A lot of the station kids came in (to Carnarvon) for high school education,’’ he said.

The family moved to Bridgewater in Victoria and bought a farm — the Broad kids grew up running wild on the property.

“It was a country kid’s upbringing,’’ Broad says.

“I finished year 12 at Bendigo Senior Secondary College and thought, ‘what am I going to do now?’.’’

He deferred university and went to work, on the family farm and elsewhere around the district. He worked in shearing sheds, as a rouseabout. Then with a couple of mates Broad formed a rock band, called Allergic Reaction. They produced two CDs and did a tour of New Zealand.

“To give you an idea of how hopeless we were, I bought a whole lot of our CDs in the $1 bin at Cash Converters,” Broad cheerfully admits.

When he was 22, Broad noticed a block of land near the family farm had come up for sale. He consolidated every dollar he’d ever saved, and went to see the local bank manager.

“I was a bit of a capitalist. I convinced the bank to loan me $400,000,” he says.

Broad’s life took a dramatic turn in February 1997 when he met Rachel Mellings from the small Wimmera town of Donald.

“I thought, ‘I could marry a girl like that’, so I went up and introduced myself,’’ he says.

“A faint heart never won a fair lady.’’

They married three years later when Broad was 24.

One day at an agricultural show, he decided to have a say about the economics of getting started on a farm.

“There was a Lib/Nat tent there so I went in and told them they were all a pack of idiots and that they needed to get into the real world.

“They said it was put up or shut up — I knew if something was going to change I’d have to do it myself.’’

Broad signed up as a member of the Liberal Party in about 2005, but resigned in disgust when then prime minister John Howard deregulated the Australian wheat market.

In 2006 Broad decided to run for the vice-president’s job at the Victorian Farmers Federation.

He spent time in Melbourne getting his head around agricultural politics — free trade, protectionism, drought relief, pricing structures. And he joined the Nationals.

At 33 he became the youngest president in VFF history.

When John Forrest, the incumbent in the seat of Mallee for 20 years, retired, Broad saw his chance.

He campaigned hard in a crowded preselection for the Nats, and was named their candidate in March 2013.

“We were driving home that night and my phone rang. Rachel answered because I was driving and it was Tony Abbott on the phone congratulating me for being part of the team.

“Then the Libs decided to run and it turned into a three-corner contest.”

His farm, which carries 1000 head of prime lamb, wheat and barley, was in the neighbouring seat of Murray, so he and Rachel bought a house in Mildura, and set up a campaign office.

Despite that bitter three-way contest Broad was elected in last year’s September poll to the safest seat in Australia.

So what drives Andrew Broad?

He says he and his wife have “not yet been blessed with children’’, but they would both dearly love to have a family. Rachel has a masters degree in gerontology and is working as an occupational therapist in Mildura.

He concedes, somewhat carefully, that he’s a Christian.

“Yeah, I’ve got a belief but I’m very conscious that we govern in a secular society. I’m very mindful of that,’’ he says.

He’s a campaigner against family violence and recently joined two other MPs in setting up a new parliamentary group to tackle the scourge of violence within the home.

He subscribes to a “leadership through servanthood” philosophy, believing that if he works hard for his electorate, everything else will take care of itself.

His colleagues believe he’s ambitious — fiercely so.

“The best thing I can do is (work to) make Barnaby Joyce the best Agriculture Minister and Tony Abbott the best PM and that makes the best for our country,’’ he said. “If you mean serving my electorate as best I can, then I’m guilty. But if you mean I’m after some title or position, no, not really.’’

Broad is not lacking in self-confidence and can rub some of his colleagues the wrong way. But he says he’s found a great team to work with in Canberra.

“Now I’m there (in Parliament) my cynicisms are less. There are some very good, well-intentioned people trying to make good decisions.

“Parliament is full of imperfect people trying to govern imperfect people.’’

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