Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Dreyfus’s chambers are in Bourke Street. The location of his chambers shows he does have a bit of a sense of humour. His chambers are in Latham Chambers.

You cannot sneak around using the words ‘our’ and ‘local’ and pretend to be a local. The people of Isaacs will not be fooled. Mr Dreyfus spruiks a post office box in Mentone, and a back-alley shopping strip address in Chelsea, as his point of contact. But it takes more than a database and a mail-merge to show that you have local knowledge.

Mr Dreyfus is not relying on hard work and local commitment to win Isaacs. His campaign is extremely well resourced. He has the unions behind him, he has the local state members behind him and he has the Bracks Labor government behind him. Today, under the headline ‘Silk’s purse’, we learnt that documents obtained by the Herald Sun under freedom of information reveal that Mr Dreyfus was paid handsomely by the Bracks government to help them foist a toxic dump on the people of Mildura.

I told the Senate on 8 February this year that Mr Dreyfus was paid in excess of $50,000 for this task. I was wrong. The Herald Sun revealed today that Mr Dreyfus was not paid $50,000; he was paid $340,000. Now, it will not surprise anyone to know that Melbourne has no shortage of barristers. There are plenty of them around but the Bracks government managed to pick and pay one of their own. So, you have a well-known friend of the Bracks government pocketing $340,000 to prosecute an issue on behalf of the state government against the wishes of the people of Mildura.

But perhaps there is some good news for the people of Isaacs in this $340,000. Perhaps Mr Dreyfus could use this $340,000 pocketed from the Victorian taxpayers to buy himself a home in the electorate—to move into the electorate and start engaging with the community. I would like to be helpful to Mr Dreyfus. I know Mr Dreyfus has a successful and busy practice at the bar. He is a busy man, so I have gone to the trouble of helping him out. I jumped on realestate.com.au this afternoon and have located a selection of properties which would neatly fit within his price range—the $340,000. There is a lovely two bedroom unit in Station Street, Carrum, for $345,000. According to the advertisement you can ‘see the boats from your front window and walk 100 metres to the beach, supermarket and train’. Not a bad spot!

There is another nice unit in Bridges Avenue, Edithvale, for $345,000, and it comes with a stone and stainless steel kitchen and ducted heating. That sounds nice. In Clifton Park Drive in Carrum Downs there is a three-bedroom house for $339,000, complete with a meals-and-family room that opens onto a sunny paved pergola entertainment area. Or perhaps the address that is more to Mr Dreyfus’s taste is Chardonnay Drive in Skye. There is a four-bedroom house for $339,000 with a great outdoor entertaining area and rumpus/theatre room. All of these properties would enable Mr Dreyfus to live in the electorate, and all of them are within his budget—or thereabouts—of $340,000 courtesy of the Bracks government and Victorian taxpayers. All of them are locations which are good enough for the people of Isaacs, but not good enough for Mr Dreyfus.

In contrast, the Liberal candidate, Ross Fox, lives in the electorate. He participates in local community groups. He is fighting for local issues. He is out and about in the electorate, talking to people, finding out about the issues and working to address them. He is not waiting for the outcome of the election before he starts working to earn the trust of the people of Isaacs; he is seeking to earn their trust now. When Ross Fox wants to visit the Mentone Post Office, he need only stroll a few blocks. He does not have to drive 20 kilometres to collect his mail from the PO box at Mentone, as Mr Dreyfus does.

Mr Dreyfus ignores the people of Isaacs and he ignores their local papers. Time and again the words, ‘Mr Dreyfus could not be contacted,’ appear in the local papers. The editor of the Chelsea, Mordialloc, Mentone Independent said on 13 February:

Since his endorsement early last year I have found Mark Dreyfus very difficult to track down for a comment on anything.

If this is the approach Mr Dreyfus intends to take when he seeks to become a member of parliament, one can only imagine how he would conduct himself in seeking to represent the people of Isaacs. Mr Dreyfus cannot be bothered winning a local preselection. He cannot be bothered talking to local journalists. He cannot be bothered moving into the electorate. But he can be bothered picking up a cheque for $340,000 from the Bracks Labor government. I think Mr Mark Dreyfus QC has his priorities wrong. He should just admit he has no interest in representing the people of Isaacs. His only intention is to seek to win the seat of Isaacs to try and become Labor’s Attorney-General. That is not a good enough reason to seek a seat in parliament.