Victorian election 2014: Independent Suzanna Sheed makes history

INDEPENDENT candidate Suzanna Sheed’s electorate office does not look like one from which history was made.

Suzanna Sheed. Indipendent Cancidate running for the seat of Shepparton in the State Election.

INDEPENDENT candidate Suzanna Sheed’s electorate office, on first impression, does not look like one from which history was made.

The walls have few paintings, there is little furniture and a campaign sign resting against the wall.

Ms Sheed was alone with one other supporter when The Weekly Times arrived just after midday today.

Despite being widely tipped to take the seat, she has refused to declare victory in the seat of Shepparton until given the official word from the Victorian Electoral Commission.

Ms Sheed is primed to claim the seat from the National Party, which endorsed Greg Barr when incumbent Jeanette Powell announced her retirement.

Yesterday was a “day of waiting” for Ms Sheed and her supporters.

She refuses to claim victory until the 13,000 pre-polls are counted.

“It could drag on and if it’s very close there could be a recount, so we just have to sit patiently and wait now to let the electoral office do its job,” she said today.

But regardless of the result she believes it is mission accomplished.

“It’s fantastic because really the whole aim was to put Shepparton on the map and not have us ignored again and I think whatever happens we’ve achieved that,” she said.

“We’ve made what was a safe seat very unsafe and I think everyone will look to this seat in any future elections, whatever happens, in a very different way.

“The people of this district have really spoken and shown they are unhappy with the way things have been.

“They want change and they want to be taken notice of the way Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and the Latrobe Valley have.

“That’s the message I take out of it; that we are not to be overlooked again and they’ve sent a loud message about it.”

At the desk where Ms Sheed sits is an open copy of a newspaper, with the controversial Nationals advertisement regarding Ms Sheed’s support for the pipeline taking up a solid proportion of the page.

Does she think the advertisement inadvertently damaged the Nationals’ cause?

“I don’t think it helped,” she says

“Quite a few years ago that occurred and it occurred in the worst drought we’ve ever had. We’ve got $2 billion worth of development happening in our irrigation infrastructure as a result of that food bowl groups’ actions.

“I don't think it’s viewed so negatively anymore. People are actually seeing the benefits of the rollout and no water has ever gone down the pipeline, yet all the parties agree that if Melbourne was below 30 per cent water it would go down the pipeline.

“It’s sort of old news, and I don’t think it helped them. I don’t know whether it helped me. It’s hard to say.”

There was also the question of whether Barnaby Joyce’s comments on SPC had impacted the Nationals’ campaign.

Mr Joyce said earlier this year that SPC, which had threatened to collapse, was a Liberal, not National, issue because it was in a Liberal seat.

Ms Sheed believed the people of Shepparton were not interested in party politics, dredging up the past or what other people said.

Instead she felt she had tapped into the feeling that Shepparton had been under-invested compared to other regions.

“We tapped into a sentiment that was there and I think people are sick of all the politics of things,” she said.

“I think they’re sick of how the parties behave and the way they pork barrel at election time.”

Ms Sheed plans to remain a consultant in her legal practice because, as senior partner, “I have a commitment to remaining at some level”.

She is also a board member for RACV, which she is reviewing.

However, she said one reason she believed the RACV board functioned well was because it had avoided being politicised.

“I guess the question is, “As an independent how far does that go?” she said.

She said she would have to review all her commitments if she was elected.

“I have to say this has come out of the blue a bit, and so I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to, other than speak to my partners in my legal practice before I stood and ... have their support to go ahead with it.

“All the other things I’m involved in, I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to what that might mean and I’ll have to do that if I am elected.”

But she denied that meant she had rushed into running for the seat.

“All these things are manageable,” she said. “I feel that this was the most important thing I could possibly do at the time and, if I’m elected, then I will feel that it has been so valuable that all the other things will fall into place.

“I think everyone in all those other organisations will be more than happy to support the position.”