NEVILLE'S PREMIER ROLE
GEELONG will have its first premier for 138 years during the next fortnight as Bellarine MP Lisa Neville steps up to run the state.
With Premier Daniel Andrews and his deputy James Merlino on leave, Ms Neville will be the Acting Premier from today.
It’s the first time a Geelong-based MP has been premier or acting premier since 1881 when Graham Berry stood down.
Ms Neville said she was honoured to have been asked to step up as Acting Premier.
“I’m genuinely thrilled and honoured to have been asked by Daniel (Andrews) to act while he’s away for the next two weeks,” she said. “I feel very happy about it and I’m taking it very seriously.
“It will be an opportunity for me to see what that role is like — not that I’m after the role — and to use it as a chance to promote Geelong and get my head across all the other things the Premier does every day.
“But I can assure people that the state is in safe hands.”
First elected in 2002 as part of the Brackslide, Ms Neville’s remarkable fifth election victory last November gave her the opportunity to become just the third woman to serve in the Victorian Parliament for 20 years.
Her career has seen some notable firsts — she was Victoria’s first Minister for Mental Health and the state’s first female Police Minister.
She has also experienced some tough times including a series of bad news stories that plagued her in 2009 as Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Children, and Minister for Aged Care.
The Auditor-General lamented the state of mental health care while the Ombudsman slammed the Department of Human Services for placing young children with sex offenders, earning Ms Neville the nickname of the Minister for Bad News.
She also received a death threat in June 2009 by antifluoride extremists opposed to government plans to add fluoride to Geelong’s water.
Ms Neville said she was always accountable despite the difficulties of the role.
“As often happens with those roles, there are a number of terrible stories and things that have happened to children and as minister I always thought it was my responsibility to do what I could to fix the system,” she said.
“The other thing that happened during that period as Minister for Community Services, I had responsibility for bushfire recovery and we had the Black Saturday fires.
“That was a very long and traumatic period working with communities affected by those fires.
“One of the things that has been great about being Emergency Services Minister this term is I’ve got to meet a lot of those communities again when we had the 10-year anniversary of Black Saturday.”
Ms Neville’s rollercoaster ride as an MP almost ended in 2014 after a boundary redistribution left her facing a fight to retain her seat.
“I went to the 2014 election and I was on -2.5 per cent but I knew the issues, I knew the community, and I knew the things they needed and that helped me turn that election around,” she said. “That set me up for this one (2018).
“It’s the work that you do, all those relationships that you build, I probably have some of the best corporate knowledge of the community and their issues of everyone, I’ve been there 17 years following all of those issues.
“It’s also thanks to the community who’ve backed in me and my style, somebody who they know is on their side and will take on anyone — in a positive way — to try and get the issues they need sorted.”
Ms Neville said the new role has already led to one request to her 22-year-old son Sam. “I’ve sent him a request this morning saying ‘I’m Acting Premier now so you have to do everything I tell you and you have to respond to my text messages’ because he hasn’t responded all week,” she said.
“He wanted to know if I get a bulletproof car which he could come and ride in as well, but I don’t. The Cats also need to make sure that they keep winning.
“I did joke with the Premier that I would only spend about $1 billion on Geelong in the two weeks he was away.”