How a weight loss drug inspired ‘big unit’ Dan Repacholi’s ‘ministry for men’ idea

As she accepts a corflute from her local federal member to display on her front lawn, Liz Priestley takes a look up and down at Dan Repacholi, then up and down again.

“You look fantastic,” enthuses Priestley, who lives in Singleton in the NSW Hunter Valley. A loyal Labor voter who follows politics closely, Priestley is shocked by Repacholi’s rapid weight loss since she last saw him. She wants to know how he did it.

Repacholi responds that his slimmed-down frame is due to neither diet nor exercise. Instead, he has lost around 30 kilograms since September by starting a treatment of Mounjaro, an Ozempic-style injectable medicine that helps suppress appetite and encourage weight loss.

Dan Repacholi hands a corflute to constituent Liz Priestley to display in her front yard.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The self-described “big unit” of a man sports a distinctive bushranger-style beard, stands a little over two metres tall and has struggled to control his weight throughout adulthood. The 42-year-old is a hamburger aficionado who prints an annual calendar showing him chomping down on a burger from a different fast food joint in his electorate each month. He’s also fond of a drink, confessing he and his mates have been known to down 20 schooners of beer each in a single sitting.

“We would smash them down like there was nothing left in the world,” he says when this masthead joins him for a day of campaigning in his electorate of Hunter.

Repacholi has competed at five Olympic Games as a sports shooter and last year hoped to become just the second sitting politician in history to represent Australia at the Olympics, but narrowly failed to qualify (Ric Charlesworth competed in hockey at Los Angeles and Seoul while the member for Perth in the 1980s).

Dan Repacholi at the Melbourne Cup in 2023. Credit: Arsineh Houspian

The disappointment of missing out led Repacholi’s diet to spin out of control. “I ate and ate and ate,” he says, explaining how he reached a peak of 152 kilograms last year. He consulted Labor colleagues Mike Freelander and Gordon Reid, both trained doctors, who recommended he try Mounjaro.

“They said to give it a go and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Repacholi is the first federal politician to speak openly about being on weight-controlling medication, although others in parliament are also using Ozempic and Mounjaro. He doesn’t believe there should be any stigma surrounding the topic.

“It’s a wonder drug; I have no issue talking about it,” he says. His candour comes not just from his passion for the medication, but a deeper belief that Australian men should be more open about their health. From his experiences meeting constituents in his electorate, he says he is struck by how much more comfortable women are talking about their physical and mental health than men.

For all the talk of cost of living dominating the election, he adds that men who are genuinely struggling to pay the bills are often the most reluctant to talk about their financial struggles. “Many blokes don’t speak about their emotions – they don’t go to see doctors,” he says.

As Repacholi knocks on constituents’ doors in Singleton, I ask him whether he thinks there should perhaps be a minister for men, just as Finance Minister Katy Gallagher serves as minister for women.

“I think that would be a great idea,” he says, adding that he would also support the appointment of a minister or special envoy with a specific focus on men’s health. At first, Repacholi wonders whether to go on the record with his comments; to say that men have specific issues that need addressing could risk him being branded as “anti-woman”. But he quickly decides not to censor himself.

Two young men from his electorate, both aged under 20, recently died by suicide, and he fears not enough is being done to stop men from taking their own lives. Just as women face particular challenges, such as domestic violence or misogyny in healthcare, so do men, he says. Nine Australians a day die by suicide, and 75 per cent of those deaths are boys and men.

“I think it would be a great idea”: Repacholi backs the idea of a minister for men. Credit: Kate Geraghty

“It’s a no-brainer,” he says of the idea of creating a parliamentary role focused on improving men’s lives. He says he could see the minister working alongside the minister for women, or minister responsible for women’s health, to raise awareness about important issues.

Repacholi’s electorate of Hunter is precisely the type of blue-collar, outer metropolitan seat that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is targeting at this election. Labor has held the seat at every election since 1910, but it has become increasingly marginal over recent years. Repacholi, who replaced long-serving MP Joel Fitzgibbon at the last election, holds the seat on a 4.8 per cent margin.

The Hunter is a proud coalmining region, and Labor’s embrace of renewable energy does not play well here. A YouGov poll published in February showed the Coalition narrowly ahead in the Hunter, but a follow-up poll in March showed Repacholi regaining the lead, reflecting a broader swing back to Labor across the country. The neighbouring seat of Paterson, held by Labor’s Meryl Swanson on a margin of 2.5 per cent, is seen as more likely to change hands on May 3.

Most politicians are sticking to party-approved soundbites. Repacholi, who left school at 15 to become a fitter-and-turner and later worked as a coalminer, prides himself on speaking like a real person. Case in point: the local sporting oval, he says, was a “shithole” before the government delivered funding for upgrades.

If re-elected, Repacholi says he will push for drugs such as Mounjaro and Ozempic to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for Australians like himself who struggle with being overweight, not just those with diabetes. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has backed such a move, which could bring the price of the drug down from around $400 a month to around $32.

As we eat an obligatory burger at his go-to takeaway spot, Burgers by HMC in Branxton, I ask if Repacholi would like to serve on the Labor frontbench, perhaps in the minister for men role we discussed. Yes, he says, when the time is right. “I just need to do my apprenticeship first.”

Support is available from MensLine on 1300 78 99 78; Lifeline on 13 11 14; and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.

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