Message: Rob Priestly speaks at the Committee for Greater Shepparton's candidates' forum on April 26.
Photo by
Max Stainkamph
Independent Rob Priestly started the campaign to win Nicholls with nothing.
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With a team of 500 people he’s built not only the campaign infrastructure but real impetus in an electorate that until May 21, remains the safest coalition seat in Victoria.
“I feel like we’ve had a great deal of success in moving the seat to being marginal, but that isn’t my goal, my goal is to win, it hangs in the balance,” he said.
After the first week of early voting Mr Priestly says he’s been able to gauge his support and believes his campaign enters the last week with real momentum.
“You are getting a sense of people’s ideas as they come through and I think we are doing well, but it is going to be very tight,” he said.
Mr Priestly launched his campaign with a focus on integrity, standards and solving the key issues facing the electorate. In talking to thousands of voters he said the issues were very much the same as when he entered the race.
“The order of the list is different — the top issues are health, aged care, access to GPs, and telecommunications,” he said.
“The anti-corruption issue is pertinent but people come at it in different ways, like standards of behaviour and how we are running our politics.”
Campaigning for the first time, Mr Priestly harboured a fear of the unknown but the reality has been a positive experience.
“I’ve learnt that we all have this fear about being a politician but the community is wonderful and are so willing to engage and discuss things, it has been a really positive and uplifting experience,” he said.
Taking flight: Rob Priestly releases carrier pigeons to make a point about poor telecommunications during the campaign.
“Even when people disagree with me it has been a good conversation, and people who perhaps are not going to vote for me are still pleased to see the competition for Nicholls.”
As an independent Mr Priestly is unaligned to Climate200 or the Voices For movement and said he hadn’t focused much on the national debate.
“No, we’ve really been running our own race,” he said.
“I have a good understanding of the community issues and I think that has got even better during the campaign.”
He said time pressures and staying ‘in the moment’ when talking to people about their issues had been the hardest things during his campaign.
At the outset Mr Priestly set a goal to make Nicholls a genuine contest. He said the ministerial visits and funding commitments were testament to his success.
“I think it is absolutely due to me being in the race,” he said.
“It has been good to see the step up in focus on the electorate; the party-linked candidates talk a big game about what they can achieve from within the party and I think a good consequence of me being in the race is that it has drawn ministers into the electorate and we are now part of the national conversation.”
The next week will consist of long hours at pre-poll and community meetings in the evenings.
“It is a major task to get everything set up from scratch,” he said.
“There has just been an extraordinary number of people who have contributed time, energy and ideas to the campaign because they really want to see that change.”
The goal now is to win the seat.
“It is already delivering; look at the tension and investment that is being delivered during this campaign, and I can guarantee that wouldn’t have happened without the competition in the seat,” he said.
“This is a really exciting opportunity for the community to really change the nature of our politics and make it really matter for the Federal Government.
“I think it is 50-50, it is tight, but momentum is with us.
“All my energy is focused on getting the job done, I’m not taking that for granted, but if we get over the line I’m rip-roaring, ready to go.”
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