Farmer News
1 May, 2025
Big change is required - Battin
LIBERAL Party leader Brad Battin was recently in Warrnambool in his push to be the next Premier of Victoria.
Mr Battin hales from a background in small business and law enforcement as a police officer; his front-line experience giving him a unique and first hand understanding of community issues.
Mr Battin followed a path familiar to most people – married, took out a mortgage to buy a home, and purchased a Baker’s Delight store that was going broke and built it into a successful business.
“It was hard, really hard. Midnight starts and few staff, but over the course of three years that business went from a $7,000 a week business to a $16,500 a week business with the same staff.”
After selling the business, Mr Battin entered the police force and started a youth program called New Start.
The program was designed to recognise young people entering the justice system or who were at high risk of entering the justice system, and divert and support them.
“We included teachers and police officers and other youth focused organisations,” Mr Battin said.
“What we found was that most of these kids had become separated from their families, and the ones we had most success with were the kids that we could eventually re-unite with their families.
“The program was very successful until funding was cut in 2007.”
The resulting frustration over a lack of government support for youth crime prevention programs led to a conversation with Gordon Rich-Phillips (Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Council between 1999 and 2022).
It was during that conversation that Mr Rich-Phillips proposed the idea that Mr Battin run for parliament.
By his own admission, Mr Battin initially laughed at the idea but mentioned it to his wife and was met with a very supportive response.
The rest, as they say, is history.
“If we lock up one youth and put them in detention for a year it costs the government $6000 per day to keep them there; and they are coming out worse than they went in.
“If I sent that kid to Scotch College it’s a fraction cheaper so that just shows how bad our system is at the moment.
“We have changed our youth justice system so much that it is only a fully punitive system; there is now no access to education where in the past there was a mandatory 25 hours a week of education.
“This government has closed Malmsbury which had the best youth justice program in the world.”
The program, called ‘dual track,’ would result in opportunities for young people at its conclusion.
“These kids would mow the lawns at, for example, Mrs Jones’ place and she would make them a lemon cake,” Mr Battin explained.
“What that does is connect these kids back to the community and there would be reward for effort. It worked.
“What we need, firstly, is to prevent this cycle by identifying kids at highest risk and support them. If you can intervene and remove them, then you will remove their friends.
“A lot of these kids have lost a parent either due to drugs or crime and if you can wrap services around them then that will be the cheapest investment we will ever make.”
When talking about parental control, Mr Battin acknowledged that while there are some young people who are neglected, there are other situations where parents have asked to have their kids “locked up.”
“One particular mother told me that when her 15 year-old son comes home, her nine year-old son moves out because he feared the brother would kill him,” Mr Battin said.
“Some parents cannot be held responsible for their kids behaviour. It’s not always easy. That kid was going to a good school, had a good family but made some bad choices and got addicted to ice.”
When discussing the state of Victoria’s health system, Mr Battin is also concerned.
He said ambulance ramping was still occurring but the government had removed the right of ambulance officers to speak publicly about it.
“There have been periods recently where zero ambulances have been available; we have high end paramedics attending low end jobs. Those ambulance officers are there with that patient until they enter the hospital, so they are unavailable.
“We need to fix the process. We know how to fix it but with nurse patient ratios being inflexible, it becomes harder to fix.
“We can have a hospital emergency department with recliner chairs for gastro and other ailments that don’t require a bed. Those patients can be in, treated and out – without requiring a bed and all the work that goes along with that.”
Mr Battin urged the government to “go to the people on the floor” of emergency departments and ask them what they need – and then supply it.
“Our greatest challenge is that this state’s debt is going to be $186 billion and that’s hard to get your head around.
“One million seconds is around 11 days; one billion seconds converts to 31.5 years so when you put that in perspective its massive but the average person who is struggling to pay their mortgage can’t quite grasp it.
“When I say that we will have to pay $1 million in interest in one hour then that hits home. That’s the challenge we have.”
Mr Battin acknowledged the state needed to reduce taxes to make them fairer, and to broaden the tax base so people can reinvest in Victoria.
At the moment, he believes, people are leaving the state in droves.
“We have 20,000 less rental properties available than two years ago. We need a digital system within government departments so that they can communicate more efficiently with one another.
“In Victoria we don’t have an income problem, we have a massive spending problem.”
Mr Battin said that should the Liberal Party win government, it will ensure gas availability here in Victoria.
“We have a huge job ahead of us. This election won’t be an easy one to win and the last thing we need is to take the foot off the pedal,” he said.
“I will be announcing our state policies when the time is right, but first we need to get Dan (Tehan) and Peter (Dutton) over the line first.
“We also have a department that is preparing us to govern so that, from day one, we know where we are at, where we need to be and how to get there.”
Mr Battin believes agriculture plays a huge part in the productivity of this state.
“I need to ease taxes to create investment, to then create better productivity,” he said.
“Farmers need to make better profits to buy new machinery and to buy and invest in infrastructure, because that investment feeds businesses down the line.
“If we reduce your taxes, then you can increase the productivity of your farm and you can invest in that new tractor, ATV or new rotary dairy – it’s all those things that bring about increased productivity.”
Mr Battin has met with both big and small farmers and the big end farmers often say “it doesn’t mean that we are rich, it just means that we can reinvest in our business.”
“That is great for Victoria because it creates more jobs. We need more efficient government, and more private sector businesses will mean more jobs and a more even tax spread.”
