King focused on more than just health

COMPASSION and humour come quickly to Catherine King’s mind when she’s asked to describe herself.

“I spend a lot of time laughing with my 10-year-old and family. I really enjoy life,” she said.

Swiftly, the conversation turns the other way, to focus on other people. It’s clear this life the Federal Member for Ballarat enjoys, has always been one of community service.

Beginning her career in Ballarat at Child and Family Services, Ms King was initially a social worker.

“I was working mostly with young people who were in pretty awful circumstances of poverty, crime, homelessness, drug addiction, and really trying to provide them with opportunities to get out of the circumstances they were in,” she said.

Still pre-politics, Ms King worked for the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, and even developed health policy at ‘Big Four’ accounting firm, KPMG.

In her time as Ballarat’s representative, she’s been Parliamentary Secretary for the Health and Ageing portfolio.

So it makes sense that Federal Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten has announced Catherine King will be Australia’s new Health Minister if a Labor government is formed after May 18’s election.

She’s looking forward to what she can deliver if this happens, including“invigorating” the reform agenda in health.

“We’ve announced a major package towards helping people with cancer with out-of-pocket costs,” she said.

“You can imagine, $21 million injected into public schools here… More teacher assistants, more capacity for school to be able to have learning spaces where they can help kids who are struggling.”

“I’ve seen it in my own electorate here, with people having to pay high out-of-pocket costs for diagnostic imaging, and I see that across the country.”

Labor has also pledged further investment in public hospitals.

“I’ve been incredibly disappointed to see the huge cuts to public hospitals that the Liberals have inflicted across every single community in this country, including my own,” Ms King said.

She said deep cuts from the Coalition have treated health as a “cash cow.

“Whether it be public hospitals, whether it be the GP tax, whether it be cuts to public dental, which have been over $300 million per year… They’ve just used health.

“None of it’s been about reforming the health system and making it better for people, so I’m looking forward to doing that if we get the opportunity,” she said.

But the opposition has made some specific local pledges, including $10 million to Sovereign Hill, ensuring the facility can expand to benefit the city, its employees and visitors.

The Ballarat Innovation and Research Collaboration for Health will also receive $10 million, building on previous Labor projects.

“I’ve seen the terrific work that the Hunter Medical Research Institute has done out of Newcastle, and trying to see how we might grow a regional education and research facility here in Ballarat is very exciting for me,” she said.

“It builds on the work we did in government of investing in the [Ballarat Regional Integrated] Cancer Centre. You don’t often get to be involved in a project that literally saves lives, but that project did, and does every single day, so I’m very proud of that.”

Ms King said she wants to return funding back to schools affected by cuts.

Labor has pledged over $20 million for the Ballarat electorate’s public schools over the next three years.

“I spend a lot of time in our schools, particularly our public schools, and I talk to teachers and I talk to parents. I know they’re really stretched, particularly trying to help kids who’ve got learning difficulties or have other disabilities, to reach their full potential,” she said.

“You can imagine, $21 million injected into public schools here… More teacher assistants, more capacity for schools to be able to have learning spaces where they can help kids who are struggling.”

Broadly, Ms King wants to see quality jobs growth for Ballarat’s community, wage improvement and better overall wellbeing.

“It’s one thing for people to have employment, but if they can’t live on the wage that they’re getting because their penalty rates have been cut, if they’re in retail or hospitality, then that’s not good for anybody in our community,” she said.

“But there’s also grinding poverty as well, and awful circumstances that people are born into or find themselves in,” Ms King said.

“Better investments in education, better investments in early childhood, better investments in our public health services… Through these things, I want to try to provide the opportunities for people to actually improve their circumstances. They’re the things that drive me.”

Ms King said there are plenty more positive announcements to come before the country heads to the polls in just over two weeks, but some Ballarat budget negativity is still on her mind.

“We’re incredibly disappointed that the government knocked [Her Majesty’s Theatre] back out of its Building Better Regions fund. I’ll be lobbying again with my colleague, Tony Burke for funding for that facility,” she said.

“We saw a lot of money pork barrelled, frankly, into Corangamite and I don’t think that was particularly fair for our community here.

“So my job is to try and do that for as many people as I possibly can… To be there for everybody.”