“I’m sorry – I’m in a bit of shock! I thought I was coming here to present the award.”
– Russell Broadbent.
The Victorian Farmers Federation Cardinia branch annual dinner always provides a great opportunity to recognise the outstanding contributions made to local agriculture but the latest one was particularly memorable as RUSSELL BENNETT explains.
A VISIBILY shocked Russell Broadbent thought he was invited to last Friday night’s Victorian Farmers Federation Cardinia branch awards dinner at the Nar Nar Goon Community Centre to present the prestigious Agricultural Achievement Award, not win it.
So, when he was brought up on stage, the McMillan MP choked back tears in describing just what the honour meant to him.
“Cast an eye over the past recipients of this award and remember their drive and passion for agriculture,” said branch president Ian Anderson as he described the award.
“They were certainly pioneers in our region.
“I’m proud to be part of a farming community, which has so many people who strive to make a difference.
“Tonight’s recipient of the Cardinia branch VFF Agricultural Achievement Award is a person who throughout his life has influenced change and assisted in moving our community forward.
“Tonight I have much pleasure in announcing that the Cardinia branch VFF Agricultural Achievement Award recipient for 2016 is Russell Broadbent.
“Russell was born in Kooweerup and lives in Pakenham with his wife Bronwyn. They have three adult children.
“Russell’s family ran a successful retail business in the area for many years and I believe this was a very important sounding ground for Russell, and assisted him greatly in pursuit of his Federal political career.
“When you represent a community, you must be able to feel and understand that community.”
Mr Broadbent was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1990 for the seat of Corinella and has experienced the highs of victory and the lows of defeat multiple times since.
Now in his seventh term representing the Gippsland region, he played a pivotal role in acquiring drought relief for Gippsland farmers, securing the mobility payment for people with disabilities and giving assistance to small businesses in the region.
Graham Osborne, himself a past winner of the Cardinia VFF’s agricultural achievement accolade, invited Mr Broadbent to the stage to present the award.
“It’s always a pleasure to do business with Russell – a most caring and compassionate member for parliament and a great representative for this part of the world,” he said.
“I’m delighted to make the presentation.”
In accepting the award, Mr Broadbent echoed the earlier sentiments of Michael Houlihan, who spoke beautifully in acknowledging the contributions made to the local community by Bob Rose and Deb Bramley, who both passed away earlier this year.
Mr Broadbent broke down as he honoured his late friend Alan Chatfield, who he credited for playing a huge role in his public life.
“I’m sorry – I’m in a bit of shock! I thought I was coming here to present the award,” he said to fits of laughter from the room.
Mr Broadbent explained how an individual can make a difference, particularly to the lives of often-struggling Victorian farmers.
“I remain in shock,” he said.
“I don’t believe I could lick the boots of those who’ve received this award before me.
“Having said that, we were in the middle of one of the worst droughts that we’ve experienced and such a long drought and of all the parts of Victoria that hadn’t received drought relief, Cardinia shire was one of them.
“We had tried everything through normal channels to actually get drought relief for the Cardinia shire and we couldn’t do it.
“We were rejected at every turn, and one day we got a phone call from the Prime Minister’s office.
“They said they wanted to come down to the area and do a communications announcement.”
They wanted to make the announcement at a local farm, but upon arrival the office’s staffers were appalled at the cow manure on the ground.
Mr Broadbent was surprised at their reaction. It was, after all, a farm.
He took the opportunity to raise the plight of local farmers who were desperate to secure drought relief, knowing that the Prime Minister had the power to make it happen.
“We devised a plan whereby we’d go to Jim Middleton – the journalist who we knew quite well – and say ‘Jim, we need a favour’,” Mr Broadbent said.
“We want you to ask the Prime Minister in the middle of the press conference why farmers 10 kilometres down the road are getting drought relief and 20 kilometres the other way are getting drought relief and these poor farmers aren’t – right in the middle of the press conference about communications.
“Jim said: ‘No worries, leave it to me’.
“Right in the middle of the press conference he fires into John Howard and he says: ‘It’s very unfair on these farmers here not to be receiving drought relief when every other farmer in Victoria is!’. The Prime Minister then says: ‘I think we should be generous’.
“We wanted to do cartwheels right across the paddock but we couldn’t. We had to look like we were terribly surprised, and chastised the journalist for even being so rude!”
A week later, drought relief for Cardinia had been secured. But as Mr Broadbent went on to explain, that wasn’t the story.
“At a recent public function, which a couple of you attended, I told that story to the function and because you watch a room very carefully in my job, there was a lady circling and I thought: ‘This is bad! This lady is going to give me a belting because of something I’ve said in my address, and I know I’d called a few of you Dutchies and a few other things’,” Mr Broadbent said.
“I thought ‘this lady is going to bury me – I can feel it coming on’.
“She got closer and closer and as the people who were speaking to me walked away she fronted me and said: ‘Drought relief’. I said ‘yes’. She said: “That put food on our table’.”
Mr Broadbent again struggled to hold back the tears.
“She gave me a hug and walked away,” he said.
“I don’t know who she is.
“We knew our farmers were doing it tough but we had no idea that some didn’t have food on their table, and they’re so proud they’ve never told any of you. Never.
“Farmers are so important – they’re important in everything we do. They’re the lifeblood of this nation and what happens around this nation, and it doesn’t matter where you go.”
Mr Broadbent said that every chance he gets he tries to err on the side of the Australian farmer.
“You’re very important, you always have been, you always will be and I’m hugely honoured to be acknowledged in this way,” he told the room.
“Thank you.”
Also at the dinner, Liam Houlihan – a former Nar Nar Goon local and the current editor of the Geelong Advertiser – gave the featured speech.
Liam, the son of Michael and Marie, is a former student of St Patrick’s Catholic primary school in Pakenham and St Kevin’s in Melbourne.
He followed in his barrister father’s footsteps and studied law and pursued that as a career before answering his true calling – journalism. Both of those, along with his family’s farming background, soon became intertwined.
“It’s great to be back in the hometown of the Goon – I really appreciated the invite from Rosemary Osborne to speak today but I think there’s been a terrible mistake,” said the former News Corp Young Journalist of the Year and Sunday Herald Sun editor.
“A dinner speaker is traditionally some sort of expert who’s informed on a particular subject, or a specific topic – you might have an astronaut who’s able to tell you what it’s like on the moon, or a quantum physicist who might speculate as to what’s at the bottom of black holes.
“But as a general reporter for most of my career, you go into work and you’re expected to get across a topic of which you know nothing about in a given period of hours, become something of an instant non-expert on the topic, relay that to your readers, and just when you’re getting a handle on the subject matter come in the next day and be given a completely different topic and repeat the process.
“So, as a tabloid journalist I have expertise in nothing to the extent that I can carve out something of a topic area that may hopefully be somewhat entertaining to you.
“There’s been a lot of crime around, coincidentally, in my life.
“I thought today I’d talk about the crime reporting I’ve done and some of the criminals I’ve known.
“The coincidental aspect of crime in my life started with my father. He was a dairy farmer – not a criminal! – who became a lawyer later in life and a criminal barrister and defender of suspected criminal clients.
“Clients would come to our house – dad had an office at the farm, in the house – and as kids we’d be sitting on the couch with these guys who were accused of various things.
“In that close range, they were just very normal people and that took away some of the romance of crime that a lot of people have and you just see the banality of people who make mistakes … sometimes over, and over, and over again!”
The hugely entertaining night also included some brilliant bush poetry from Tynong North icon Gerry Cunningham.
