1. 6 SNNEWS SHEPPARTON NEWS, MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014
State Election 2014
Country commitmentCANDIDATE FOR EUROA BELIEVES NATIONALS STILL THE PARTY THAT HAS RURAL VOTERS’ INTERESTS AT HEART
Country girl: Nationals candidate for Euroa Steph Ryan grew up on a dairy farm at Murchison and now lives in the rural town
Wandong.
As I followed the Steph-Ryan-
mobile through the paddocks
of a Murchison property I
wondered why she had a
driver.
She took me to a bend in the
river where she almost
drowned as a child.
Ms Ryan explained it was one
of the two times she almost
drowned and was rescued by
her elder brother Luke.
‘‘I was a pretty accident-
prone child,’’ she said.
Because she lives in
Wandong, we caught up at
her old family dairy farm, now
owned by a different family.
You would expect high heels
and farm gate fences to be
contrasting, but Ms Ryan
looked very much at ease
with country living.
I managed to keep my
burning question about the
driver to the end of our chat,
when she explained that
because of long days
campaigning across the large
electorate, she needed
someone to share the
driving.
Her sister Tarsha, 32, is her
saviour when she comes
home.
‘‘She makes sure I eat,’’ she
said.
‘‘She’s an incredibly healthy
person and cooks roast
vegies in healthy oil.
‘‘It’s really nice (living with
my sister); we haven’t lived
together in years.’’
Ms Ryan’s tip for dealing with
the long days of full-time
campaigning is to get at least
one night’s good sleep a
week.
She went from being a
journalist to taking up a
maternity-leave position as
The Nationals’ State Member
of Rodney Paul Weller’s
electoral officer in 2007 and
has been with the party in
various capacities since.
‘‘Talking to people as a
journalist made me feel
powerless to help, but when I
worked for Paul, it made me
realise I could do
something,’’ she said.
Ms Ryan was grateful to have
experienced working with the
party when it was in
opposition, because it was a
much tougher gig.
‘‘When you are in opposition,
you tend to work on the smell
of an oily rag,’’ she said.
The 28-year-old developed
policy with future Nationals
ministers Peter Walsh and
Hugh Delahunty before the
last election.
She said the Murray-Darling
Basin Plan was a huge
portfolio to work on.
Eventually she began
working as media advisor for
then Victorian Premier Ted
Baillieu.
In 2011 and 2012, she was in
charge of managing all
budget portfolios.
‘‘I learned a lot, not just how
politicians of government
operate, but how it
(government) works on a
bureaucratic and
departmental level,’’ she
said.
She has never questioned
her loyalty to the Nationals,
which came from her own
encounters with the party
across the years. Her parents
were never party political.
Ms Ryan is aware the party is
mostly made up of middle-
aged men and said she was
not treated any differently as
a woman — and constituents
have not reacted any
differently to her.
‘‘As a party they have to
adapt and change,’’ she said.
She said the change of
having a different
demographic as a candidate
was reflective of the changes
sweeping through regional
Victoria.
‘‘I do understand farming . . .
I’m not going to understand it
like someone who has spent
50 years farming the land,’’
she said.
She sees the party as a
collection of like-minded
individuals who are open to
healthy debate.
She said Nationals politicians
debated behind closed
doors, but once a decision
had been made on an issue,
they walked out of the party
room united.
‘‘I’ve seen politics from more
than one angle — and (the
Nationals) do it with honour,’’
she said.
Even though she had been a
Melburnian from the 1990s to
February this year, Ms Ryan’s
passion lies with regional
Victoria and she is keen to
learn more about the
southern half of the
electorate, which is why she
moved to Wandong.
When doorknocking, a
common issue people raise is
around transport, which Ms
Ryan is keen to tackle.
Ms Ryan is keen to
strengthen and diversify the
local industry base to bring
new jobs to the region,
decentralise more
government jobs, improve
train services, address the
gap in Year 12 attainment
rates between city and
regional communities, deliver
quality health services to the
region, advocate for
agriculture industries and
ensure the Euroa electorate
continued to get a fair share
of the $1 billion Regional
Growth Fund.
The Euroa hospital is calling
for public beds, which Ms
Ryan promised she would
fight for, if elected.
She said her ultimate goal
was to assist with a funding
agreement between Goulburn
Valley Health and Euroa
Health to get the beds
funded.
She has spoken to both
Victorian Deputy Premier
Peter Ryan and Victorian
Health Minister David Davis
about the issue.
‘‘I will stay in (Mr Davis’) ear
about it,’’ she said.
‘‘I asked Peter Ryan to look at
it because he negotiated a
similar deal with Heyfield
(Hospital).’’
In regards to the
methamphetamine crisis, Ms
Ryan believes strong
enforcement to shut down
supply chains and investment
in education and prevention is
necessary.
She said the Coalition
Government invested
$38 million to tackle illicit
drugs in the form of the media
campaign What are you doing
on ice? and drug and alcohol
treatment centres in the
Hume region, as well as
$2 million to help local
communities implement their
own solutions to address use
of the drug.
She hopes to be elected and
said she was going to ‘‘give it
my best crack’’.
‘‘I tried to really understand
the community perspectives
and push them towards the
government,’’ she said.
She said it felt as though she
had broad support among
constituents.
‘‘I’m local and I understand
the regional community, I
care about it,’’ she said.
‘‘My experience has taught
me how to get things done in
government.’’
With the state election
taking place on
November 29, News
journalist ELAINE
COONEY has visited
the candidates in their
homes. As well as
learning what they
stand for, she gets an
exclusive glimpse of
their private worlds.
Today, Nationals
candidate for the seat
of Euroa Steph Ryan is
in the spotlight.