You have reached your maximum number of saved items.
Remove items from your saved list to add more.
You've used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.
The northern Victorian electoral district of Murray Plains has long been safe Coalition heartland.
With the Nationals holding the seat with a whopping 23 per cent margin, it should not even be a contest at this month’s state election – and yet, the swarm of orange One Nation posters suggests otherwise.
One Nation is rewriting the political script, and its Murray Plains candidate Garner Smith has embraced his party’s plain-speaking style.
In 2022, he sparked furore over remarks on social media about a video of ex-Richmond footballer Dustin Martin touching the breasts of a topless woman in a bar.
“I’d be more worried if he didn’t go in for a feel,” Smith wrote at the time.
Following criticism online, Smith responded: “To all you triggered, whinging, whining, bleating, bitching, offended losers. Instead of getting a skinny soy latte with a twist of lemon, head to your local independent hardware store, buy a bag of cement and harden the #@&! up.”
Smith was a councillor with the Gannawarra Shire at the time and served two terms as mayor and one as deputy mayor since his election to the council in 2020. He remains a councillor but has taken leave to contest the election.
Smith tells The Age he is unafraid of tackling the “fairly significant topic” regarding his 2022 comments, but insists it cannot be done justice within the confines of an interview about the election campaign.
“There was nothing sexist in what I said, to be quite frank,” he says.
Smith describes himself as a political outsider, despite his experience in local government and longstanding membership of the Nationals before defecting to One Nation.
“I am a regular guy. I’m a store owner, business owner, farmer, and a small-time politician at the moment.”
Smith switched allegiances after growing disillusioned with the Nationals, saying the party had let Victorians down on a range of issues, including water policy.
“The National Party didn’t want me because I don’t toe the line,” he says. “I will say what deserves to be said.”
Murray Plains runs along the Murray River from Echuca to Swan Hill and covers Pyramid Hill, Kerang, Boort, Kyabram and Rochester.
At the 2022 election, the Nationals held this seat with a 23 per cent margin, making it the second-safest district in Victoria.
Now, Smith appears to be capitalising on deep frustration with established parties throughout the electorate.
But retiring Murray Plains MP Peter Walsh says changing political parties is worse than switching football teams.
Despite the seemingly unassailable margin, he insists it is no certainty his party will retain Murray Plains.
“Any of the Nats seats when the incumbent is retiring is no longer safe,” he says.
Walsh says the poor conditions of roads, rising living costs, healthcare, crime and safety are the big local issues at this election.
Walsh was first elected to the seat of Swan Hill in 2002, before it was abolished in 2014 and the Murray Plains district created.
Walsh backs his successor, farmer Brett Hosking, who brings solid local and professional experience to the campaign, having served as president of the Victorian Farmers Federation.
Hosking says his party will tackle deep grievances in country communities through a policy mix that includes allocating 25 per cent of all Victorian government infrastructure funding to regional Victoria.
“I love that we’re going to see that investment back into communities that feel ignored,” he says.
Hosking believes governments should play a smaller role in Victorians’ lives, saying people feel “overregulated”.
His election promises include $100 million to replace the 130-year-old Swan Hill bridge to Murray Downs.
The Coalition has also pledged to scrap the contentious Emergency Services Levy – a move Hosking says will help with the cost of living.
To sample the political temperature in rural Victoria, one could do worse than a beer and some banter at the Gunbower Hotel.
The pub’s balcony carries Smith’s orange corflute. Just a few metres away, Hosking’s green poster is attached to the pub’s front fence.
Labor, the Greens, Victorian Socialists, Animal Justice Party and Family First are also running candidates in Murray Plains.
Hotel owner Richard “Bones” McGillivray recently hosted a meeting for the Nationals in his pub and would offer the same for One Nation or any political party.
“We live in a democracy,” he says. “I’ve got to be fair.”
McGillivray expresses a sentiment that seems widespread throughout the electorate: the desire for a new government.
“We need to have change so we can prosper.”
McGillivray says the Nationals have strong support in Echuca, which is one of the electorate’s bigger population centres.
Propped at the Gunbower Hotel bar, farming couple Sue Riddell and Andrew Colvin are so disillusioned with the political establishment they are considering a vote for One Nation for the first time.
The pair expects the state is set for economic distress after years of cost blowouts on major projects and spiralling government debt.
“If we think it’s tough now, it’s going to get worse,” Riddell says.
Colvin explains country people are already experiencing deep financial pain, particularly with rising diesel and electricity prices.
But water for irrigation is another contentious issue here. Many farmers believe the agricultural sector has been denied its fair share of water, with too much allocated for environmental flows.
“We need more accountability,” Colvin says.
Committee for Echuca Moama chief executive Jayden Howe agrees One Nation appears to be gaining traction in agricultural circles.
“We’ve just seen an increase in what you’d call the pub chat,” he says. “People that typically were those Nationals voters are starting to show further interest in other parties like One Nation.”
He says water access is a major concern for farmers, while crime and education are also important issues for local voters.
About an hour’s drive away, Kerang Rotary Club treasurer Jenny Kelly says One Nation is running a highly visible campaign, which is aided by Smith’s local profile as a former mayor.
“I think it’s going to be a lot closer this year,” she says.
At the Swan Hill Neighbourhood House, co-manager Sarina Kelly says her not-for-profit organisation is on the front line of Victoria’s cost-of-living crisis.
She says the Coalition is the only party that has made funding commitments for neighbourhood houses, but their $10 million statewide promise falls far short of what’s needed.
“We see a lot of homelessness and people struggling with the cost of living,” she says. “Many people need support with food.”
Kelly says at least half the 200 neighbourhood houses across Victoria are struggling financially and need more help.
Now, voters will decide who is best placed to tackle these stubborn problems.
But Garner Smith believes he has already been successful in delivering one of his promises: to make Murray Plains politically important.
Murray Plains will have a contest that seemed all but impossible until just a few months ago.
