Cathy McGowan to retire at May federal election

Cathy McGowan announces she will retire at the May election, throwing her support behind Wangaratta midwife Helen Haines.

Liberal candidate for Indi Steve Martin with his kids Sam (5), Isabelle (9) Eve (2) and Sophia (7) with their dog Rosie in Wangaratta. Picture: Aaron Francis

Independent MP Cathy McGowan has announced she will retire as the member for the northeast Victorian seat of Indi, throwing her support behind Wangaratta rural health expert and midwife Helen Haines.

Dr Haines was chosen by Ms McGowan’s community group Voices for Indi to succeed Ms McGowan at a forum on Saturday.

“Clearly I’ve been thinking about when the timing is right ... yesterday I rang around my colleagues on the crossbench, I spoke to the Prime Minister, I spoke to the leader of the Opposition,” said Ms McGowan.

“They thanked me for the work I’ve done, they wished Helen well, and they said, ‘we’re going to have a very fierce competition in Indi’, so that really did coalesce for me that the timing is right, to give the people of Indi a choice between good candidates and good policy.”

Cathy McGowan has thrown her support behind Helen Haines.

Ms McGowan said the timing was right because the right person had put her hand up to succeed her.

“Helen Haines is an excellent candidate and she’s ready to go,” Ms McGowan said.

“Helen’s a nurse and a midwife. She’s an acknowledged leader in the community. There is huge respect for her integrity, ethics and values.

“She’s tough and she’s strong, and I know she’ll take the battle to Canberra.”

Ms McGowan urged people to engage with the political process.

“We know the main political parties are going to throw everything at Indi, and I say bring it on.

“When I was elected, I promised to give the people of Indi a choice, and I’m really looking forward to having a battle around the politics, around the policy.”

“To those who want to engage in this really important part of democracy, I say sign up to your party, I say turn up to your party, and I say speak up about the things that are important.

“For today and the next five months, Australia is listening to Indi.”

With deputy Nationals party leader Bridget McKenzie yet to rule a run for Indi in or out as she moves her office to Wodonga, in the electorate, Liberal candidate Steve Martin is Dr Haines’s key opponent in the seat formerly held by Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella until 2013.

Labor has preselected 25-year-old former Wodonga councillor Eric Kerr in Indi, having never held the seat in its 118 year history.

“I think we’ll actually raise the debate of political contesting, because we’ve already seen Steve Martin preselected for the Liberal Party,” Ms McGowan said.

“We’re waiting to see what the National Party do but I hope they bring a high profile woman to the debate, and then not only Helen, but the community of Indi can say, ‘here’s what we want from our representatives’.”

‘Urban Australians should lift their gaze beyond the high-rise to Indi’: Haines

Dr Haines paid tribute to Ms McGowan.

“If you’re looking for someone in life to lead you, to give you direction, you couldn’t find someone much better than this woman here,’ she said.

“She has such integrity, such honesty, such commitment to purpose, such commitment not only to the local community, but with a national gaze, and that’s what I plan to do too.

“I receive this baton from Cathy with absolute strength in my hands and passion in my heart and love for the community that I’ve lived in for 30 plus years.”

A Wangaratta resident for 32 years, Dr Haines has worked as a nurse, midwife and company ­director of an aged-care home.

The mother of three adult children is currently director of the University of Melbourne’s Rural Health Academic Network and has a medical science PhD in ­reproductive health from Uppsala University, Sweden.

Dr Haines’s husband, Phil Haines, was campaign manager for Ms McGowan at the 2013 and 2016 elections and their son Nick, who is a senior campaigner with global consumer activist group SumOfUs, also played a key role.

She said she would prioritise access to high quality healthcare should she become the next Member for Indi, as well as economic development, and particularly the development of the renewable energy industry.

“Climate is one of the greatest business opportunities we have as regional Australians,” Dr Haines said.

“It’s not just a crisis, it’s an opportunity.”

Dr Haines said she had never met Senator McKenzie, and it was up to the senator and the National Party to decide whether she runs.

“Should Senator McKenzie decide that her ambition is to come into Indi and try for a seat in the House of Representatives, then I wish her of course the very, very best of luck,” she said.

“I believe with the support of the people around me, we can do extraordinary things. We showed that in 2013, when we created actually the upset of a nation.

“I actually want urban Australia to lift their gaze beyond the high-rise – it’s pretty hard, there’s a lot of congestion – and say, ‘where do we get the fresh ideas? Where do we get some integrity and a way forward for Australia?’, and I say to them, look to rural and regional Australia and look to Indi.”

Dr Haines was chosen from three prospective Voices for Indi candidates, including Ms McGowan’s sister, Beechworth lawyer Helen McGowan, and Euroa teacher ­Angela Tough, during Saturday’s five-hour closed-door forum.

Voices for Indi is a self-described grassroots community group which has supported Ms McGowan since her 2013 election campaign.

The group has chosen not to register as a political party, which would have allowed its supporters to make tax-deductible donations, because it would not be able to call its chosen candidate an independent should it gain party status.

Dr Haines said there was “nothing challenging” about Saturday’s contest against Ms McGowan’s sister and Ms Tough except for the obligation to put her “best self” forward.

“The three of us engaged in that process with open hearts and open minds because we knew that the people in the room didn’t see that as a competition,” she said.

“The people in the room saw that as a way forward, of finding someone who’s able to work with them, because this isn’t about an individual. This is about representation.”

She said she wasn’t “just an independent”, but hat the backing of Voices for Indi.

“That’s a very special thing, actually, because that’s about the community coming forward and saying, ‘hey, we want someone who looks really, really different to a big party politician,’ and I think right now the focus of big party politics is on themselves, and it should never be about the politician.

“It shouldn’t be about celebrity, it shouldn’t be about scandal. It should be about leadership. It should be about decency and it should be about ideas, and that’s why I’m an independent.”

Indi candidate Helen Haines. Picture: Aaron Francis

Voters happy with Liberal policy, but not Liberal behaviour: Martin

Liberal candidate and engineer Mr Martin, 39, is a father of four who moved to Wodonga five years ago with his wife Annabel, who is a renal physician.

Mr Martin grew up in Dubbo, in the NSW central west, but the couple have also lived in Sydney and Melbourne and chose Wodonga to bring up their children, aged between two and nine.

The couple’s youngest child, Eve, has down syndrome and had open heart surgery last year.

Mr Martin said his experience as a father motivated him to do more to improve services such as health, education and childcare in Indi.

“It really is an eye-opener to the amazing resources that we’ve got available to us, but also some of the challenges of living, when you’ve got serious health issues, and having to work between Wodonga and Melbourne when there services aren’t available, and we’re certainly mindful that every additional service we can get in Wodonga is then three hours closer to Corryong (in the far northeast of the electorate),” Mr Martin said.

“I’ve certainly experienced it personally and am passionate to see what’s possible.”

“Childcare is such a critical thing for families, and I know, being a father of four with both of us working, I know how critical it is to have childcare that’s flexible around family needs, and how much of a contributor that is to workplace participation for men and for women.”

Mr Martin has taken leave from his job to focus on the May election, and will launch his “50 towns in 50 days” campaign on Friday, aiming to spend a day talking to locals in every town in Indi with a population of more than 200.

The relative newcomer to the Liberal Party, who is a factionally unaligned social conservative and family friend of West Australian MP Andrew Hastie, conceded it was not easy being a Liberal candidate following the August leadership spill.

“When I talk to people, generally they’re quite happy with a lot of things the government has done from a policy perspective, but ­obviously quite unhappy with what they’ve seen from some of the behaviour,” Mr Martin said.

“My job, putting myself forward, is to try to demonstrate that I am authentic and committed to local representation.”

Mr Martin also cited reducing ­energy prices, protecting self-funded retirees from Labor’s dividend imputation policy and helping Indi and other regional electorates play a role in population policy as key issues.