Constance and I
Seeking a different perspective on Gilmore's major party candidates, Spark was keen for two long-time local political campaigners, Labor's Michelle Miran and Liberal's Luke Sikora, to each interview their rival party candidates, Labor's Fiona Phillips and Liberal's Andrew Constance. However, neither candidate agreed to the invitation, so it was left to the jilted interviewers to write their own personal perspective to share with Spark readers.
Michelle Miran penned the following provocative call for action and answers from Andrew Constance.
Miran is a life member of the NSW ALP, a previous campaign director and candidate for the state and senate. A retired hospitality and management professional, Miran is notorious for being outspoken, honest and passionate.
A Clarion Call to Gilmore
by Michelle Miran /
I was asked to give a Labor "true believer" perspective on Andrew Constance, Gilmore's Liberal candidate for the May 3 Federal election.
Obviously, you would expect that I would clearly show my personal bias and talk down the offerings of the opposition LNP . Frankly, that would be too predictable and would hardly be worth reading. I'll leave that to the candidates.
I am not a journalist, but I will attempt to tease out five key policy areas that I believe are extremely important to the people of Gilmore and pose some questions for you and the candidates to ponder - and hopefully respond to.
Let’s take a look at what’s going on in Gilmore;
- a geographically complex electorate given its long narrow ribbon shape
- populated by 128,928 voters across 49 towns and villages
- held by the Liberal Party from 1996 until 2019.
Fiona Phillips MP is a 5th-generation local who cut her teeth on the “Save Nowra Pool” campaign which she ran with great success. After a tilt at State politics, Fiona set her sights on Gilmore and has been the local Federal Member since 2019.
A win on May 3 would see Phillips enter her third term as the Federal Member for Gilmore.
Speaking to Fiona, you would hear that her greatest passion is her community. She is a relentless and tireless worker, something noted by many of her constituents.
Andrew Constance, by contrast, was the State member for Bega from 2003 to 2021, holding a number of Ministerial portfolios including Treasurer, Transport and Infrastructure. Intending to run for Eden Monaro in 2020, Constance withdrew after a dispute with John Barillaro.
Katharine Murphy
In 2022 Constance received a captain’s call from Scott Morrison to stand for the seat of Gilmore. Defeated by Phillips, he then focussed his sights on the Senate, attempting to fill the vacancy created by the death of Jim Molan.
That too was unsuccessful. So, here we are in 2025 and, once again, Andrew Constance has resurfaced to contest Gilmore.
Clearly Mr Constance, who once said he was done with politics, is not. Why? There are far better paying and more rewarding jobs in the private sector especially for experienced ex Liberal politicians.
Let’s move on to some of the policies that are hotly debated now.
Climate Contradictions
Climate Action is a good starting point given Constance’s recent comments that completely contradicted his earlier statements and sent Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien, shadow Minister for Climate and Energy, into a flap.
After the 2019 BlackSummer Bushfires, Andrew Constance stated very publicly and loudly that the tragic fire season was directly attributable to climate change.
However, two months ago, Mr Constance again made a very public statement, but this time saying that a Dutton Government would wind back climate action and withdraw from the International Paris Agreement.
Ted O’Brien was positively apoplectic at this statement and he reiterated that the coalition would not wind back Australia’s international climate commitments. Oops!
Such a whopper of an error begs the question to Andrew; what exactly is your position on renewables, batteries, wind turbines and developing less reliance on fossil fuels.
I'd like to ask Andrew Constance, what will you personally do to ensure the people of Gilmore have access to cost effective energy sources? Do you support rebates on batteries, solar power and transfer to all electric households? If not, why not?
Expensive Education
Education underpins the economic productivity and profitability of every nation. The quality of education from cradle to grave should be accessible, affordable and able to allow each generation to achieve their full potential.
Yet, during the Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison LNP Coalition governments, education from early learning to doctorate was treated as an afterthought.
The current leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, was instrumental in much of the decline, denying women in particular the opportunity to remain in or re-enter the workforce because the cost of early childhood learning was prohibitive for the average family.
Disproportionate levels of funding were siphoned off to favour the very wealthy private schools. Public schools fell into disrepair and teachers became so demoralised they left the profession due to falling wages and lack of recognition.
TAFE nationally was gutted. University courses were cut. Fees increased and HECS debts soared.
Since 2022, the Albanese government has introduced free TAFE, written off millions of dollars of HECs debts and finally, after 15 years, will fully fund public schools, just like Gonski recommended. Under the LNP, Gonski was dismantled and ridiculed.
At this point in the campaign the electorate still has no idea of what a Dutton government will do to ensure the continuous improvements needed at all levels of education. Saying “Oh we’ll do that too” is just not good enough.
It’s about people’s lives: theirs and their children’s future. You cannot just keep saying “me too” - it doesn’t cut it.
What is your point of difference Andrew?
Veterans Treated Shamefully
Gilmore is home to thousands of military personnel, serving and retired. People who selflessly give their lives to protecting our country.
Yet our veterans were treated shamefully by the previous Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments which left a $13 billion backlog of compensation and un-assessed claims to Australian veterans at the end of the LNP’s term in office.
The backlog of 42,000 claims has now been cleared.
In Gilmore there are 5890 veterans. How many of these people were caught up in such blindingly shameful incompetence?
We rely on Services Australia in every electorate/community to service the needs of Veterans Affairs; Child and Family payments, pensions, Newstart, immigration queries, and many others.
Service Australia personnel are at the frontline. However, without the administrative and specialised knowledge of an experienced workforce everything falls down.
Public Service Slashing
Accordingly, the current government has had to restore the public service, which the Dutton opposition has declared a waste of money and inefficient, initially pledging that an LNP government would cut 41,000 positions.
Think about that for just a few seconds and remember back to the days of long wait lists for passports, Robodebt, and $13 billion that was owed to veterans.
Think about the cost of using Labour Hire companies with little accountability.
Think about the lack of job security. Think about the lack of corporate knowledge to assist people to navigate their way through a complex system.
Now, give a thought to trust. Can you trust a potential government which wants to slash and burn jobs, then change their minds to suit their campaign and possibly break that promise once in government?
Mr Constance, will you risk the jobs of regional public servants and their recently won job security just to win an election?
Dodging Tax Breaks
During 2024, 64,000 workers in Gilmore received a taxation reduction originally intended for high income earners only.
The Albanese government had agreed to the original plan as passed by the former government. However, by the time Labor came into government and the country was suffering from “a cost of living crisis” , the Prime Minister and Treasurer Chalmers determined that a fairer slice of the cake needed to be shared among all Australians and, as a consequence, all workers received the new tax benefit, but without any added cost to the budget.
While this alone has not relieved all the financial stress we experience, it goes a long way to helping, when you add all the other measures that were introduced.
Recently someone suggested to me that it was all lies. How can that be when you actually see those tax benefits in your pay advice?
Conversely, Peter Dutton and Andrew Constance have offered you a 25c per litre reduction in excise tax for one year. What is the benefit to your hip pocket when petrol prices fluctuate, and fuel stations hedge their pricing against the offset?
It doesn’t take a genius to work that out. Perhaps Mr Constance knows something I don’t know about simple mathematics.
(In fuel hedging, companies buy or sell fuel-related contracts to fix a price, mitigating the risk of fuel prices rising. If fuel prices increase, the gains from the hedge can offset the higher fuel cost. Conversely, if prices fall, the loss from the hedge offsets the lower fuel cost, effectively locking in a known fuel cost.)
It is important that voters are reminded of Andrew Constance's past experience as the NSW Transport Minister, who was responsible for off-shoring local jobs to build trains and installing a metro system in Sydney without ensuring compatible track alignments.
He did not advocate the electrification of the Bomaderry to Kiama Line even though it was within his remit.
Mr Constance, why didn’t you develop and implement public transport services in regional NSW? Particularly in cities like the Shoalhaven where exponential population growth and employment has occurred over the last 25 years.
Health. It's Personal.
Finally, health - a policy issue that impacts every one of us regardless of age, gender socio-economic status or address.
The two most precious pieces of health policy that set us apart from so many countries is Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
Both Medicare and the PBS are perennially targeted by conservative governments who take the Libertarian view that it’s your personal responsibility and your fault if you get sick. If you can afford care, you pay for it. If not, who cares?
Where is the regard or concern for the wellbeing of the nation? A productive nation is well educated and healthy.
In the last three years of this Labor government, we have seen more increases in the Medicare rebate, more drugs come onto the PBS and the creation of Urgent Care Clinics to relieve the burden of hospital EDs.
So why did Peter Dutton, in his time as Health Minister, attempt to introduce co-payments and cut healthcare funding?
He wasn’t dubbed the worst ever Health Minister for nothing. Not by me, but by doctors, health administrators and nurses.
Health services are particularly close to my heart, unsurprisingly.
I live with a very rare terminal Cancer called Uveal Melanoma. Approximately 170 people in Australia suffer from this rare eye cancer.
I am not alone, there are many thousands of cancer and chronic disease sufferers who rely on Medicare and the PBS for their life saving treatments.
My questions to you directly Mr Constance are:
On behalf of all cancer and chronic disease patients whose treatments are fully covered by Medicare and the PBS, can you guarantee that we will not lose access to fully funded treatments? What is the Dutton LNP policy regarding ongoing increased funding for Medicare and continuing a policy of cheaper prescription medicines and inclusion of new drugs to the PBS that save lives?
This is a particularly important question for regional patients like us in Gilmore.
I leave you with my thoughts and comments to ponder while I wait to see if Andrew Constance replies to these questions.
Use your vote wisely, readers. We live in a wonderful democracy and your opinion matters.
Michelle Miran,
Life Member, Australian Labor Party
McKell Award Recipient
St Georges Basin Jervis Bay Branch President
State Electorate Council President
