Grounded transport minister Darren Chester a man on the move

The senior Victorian Nationals MP was elevated from Assistant Defence Minister to the Transport and Infrastructure Minister’s position after Barnaby Joyce replaced Warren Truss as Nationals leader in February.

He retained that role when the new ministry was sworn in following the recent federal election and now wants to follow through on nation building projects vital to agricultural profitability, like the inland rail, to consolidate his seniority.

The 48-year-old has been identified as someone to watch within the federal Nationals - or a Transport Minister on the move - in a new political era formally stamped by Mr Joyce’s recent ascent to the party’s leadership.

However, despite reaching the somewhat lofty heights of federal cabinet, very few regional Australians or farmers would immediately recognise the fourth-term MP outside of his Gippsland rural electorate in eastern Victoria - but that’s something he’s comfortable with for now.

Mr Chester said as a grassroots politician, he went out of his way to remain as connected as he could with people who live and work in his local community and loyal to those who voted him into parliament.

“Probably the curse of being a minister is that the more you progress through your political career, the more distant you can become from the people who put you there in the first place,” he said.

“(But) I go out of my way to try and stay in contact with local people and visit my local pubs and clubs as often as I can to catch up with a few mates and hear what’s going on around town.

“I’m still a member of my local surf life-saving club and I try and volunteer with my kids’ sport when I’m home for the weekends and to stay connected with my local friends and family.”

Mr Chester said his magic ingredient to remain grounded when the political world was spinning or spiralling was to remember where he came from.

He recalled a recent experience of flying south from Townsville in Queensland to Sydney with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, after announcing a rail project in the seat of Herbert.

The flight continued south onto the Sale RAAF base in Victoria and he then drove over to his mum’s place and slept the night there, in a caravan located in the backyard.

“It’s an anecdote that reminds me to never forget where you came from,” he said.

“I had the opportunity that night to talk about the affairs of State and the important issues facing the community and our nation with the Prime Minister.

“But to then go home to mum’s place and sleep in the caravan in the backyard was a great reminder of where I came from.”

Mr Chester’s parents were the first generation of his family to not continue farming with his father becoming a plumber.

He grew up at Sale with a typical grassroots country upbringing attending a local state school while living in the home that his parents built which is the same one that his mum still lives in.

His father died just a few months before he went into federal parliament in 2008 at a by-election triggered by the retirement of his Nationals’ predecessor Peter McGauran who was Agriculture Minister from 2005 to 2007.

Mr Chester’s preparation for federal politics included time working as a cadet journalist in his first job out of school in regional newspapers and media, mainly in Victoria but also five years in Queensland.

In 1994, he returned to Gippsland with his wife to raise a family to try and give them a similar grassroots upbringing to the one that he experienced.

“We’ve been very blessed to have four kids,” he said.

“Our oldest girl is at university studying speech pathology, our other girl is in year 12 and the two boys are 13 and 14 and attending the local high school as well.”

Mr Chester said his motivation for entering politics was merely an extension of his inbuilt will to serve the local community.

“Growing up in a small country town, almost by osmosis, it was built into me that you make a contribution to your local community,” he said.

“My dad was very active in the school council, the local historical society and local athletics club and I guess I grew up with that example of having parents who were active members of the local community.”

Mr Chester said when he moved to Lakes Entrance in 1994 a local businessman invited him to join the local business and tourism association where he served as president for several years.

He said that provided his “political awakening” as he started to realise regional towns weren’t getting a fair go from state or federal governments.

“I became more active in advocating for more resources to come to my town and then it became advocating for resources to come into my region and eventually it led to me getting involved in the National Party in about 2002,” he said.

“At the same time I was running my own business as a media and marketing consultant where I was getting members of parliament asking me to do some research work for them or press releases or speeches which made me more aware of how the political process works.”

Mr Chester was also CEO of Champions of the Bush - a regional lobby group that represents local businesses in advocating for governments investment in infrastructure and the services.

He then worked as Chief of Staff to former Victorian Nationals leader Peter Ryan from 2004 to 2008 who is also his political mentor.

“In many ways that became my apprenticeship into politics,” he said.

“By the time I’d done four years with Peter Ryan and my local federal MP Peter McGauran retired after 25-years it was time to put up or shut up.

“I’d been involved on the periphery of politics for the best part of 10 years and there was an opportunity to run in a federal seat which I took in 2008 at the by-election.”

Mr Chester said he’d been identified as a potential member of parliament since as early as 2002 when he ran in the State seat of Gippsland East which was regarded as unwinnable due to facing an “entrenched” independent member.

“We were never going to win the seat but it gave me my first experience of genuine public life and the contest of ideas and even though we were well beaten I enjoyed the challenge and the experience,” he said.

Mr Chester said Mr Ryan was his mentor by virtue of the fact that they two spent so much time working together over four years.

“We probably spent more time together during that time when we did with our own wives,” he said.

“But travelling around regional Victoria and working on policy helped shaped my attitude towards politics.

“As much as possible you work with the other side to get results but you need to be prepared to pick a side when the hard decisions need to be made and stick by your decisions.”

Mr Chester said the side he’s picked is the “little guys” in the community or mum and dad small business operators like farmers who are the risk-takers with an entrepreneurial spirit “who want to have a go”.

“I think we’ve got to make sure they have a voice in the parliament as well,” he said.

“Big business will always have a voice because they can afford to have corporate relations staff and accountants and lawyers on their team presenting their positions but the little mum and dad operators often need someone to stand up for them.

“That’s why I was so passionate about standing up for the owner-drivers in the trucking industry when the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal order was passed down.

“I felt they didn’t have a voice and being able to stand up in cabinet and advocate for them was an important moment for me personally but I think it showed the little guys can still have a voice in the federal parliament.”

Mr Chester said while his parents didn’t pursue a farming career he had many uncles and aunties and cousins who were directly involved in agriculture when he was growing up.

“We had the best of both worlds in some regards,” he said.

“We didn’t have the vagaries of a farm income but we got to spend a lot of weekends with our cousins on the farm and experience farm life without having to live with many of the trials and tribulations that go with it.

“There are no regrets in that regard and we still live in a beautiful agricultural region and have many family friends and relatives still involved in agriculture.”

Mr Chester said his home electorate of Gippsland was one of the nation’s most agriculturally diverse regions.

He said it was home to 23 per cent of Australia’s dairy production, had fantastic beef and wool production, horticultural opportunities that are continually growing and contained the nation’s largest timber mill at Heyfield.

“Diversity is the big thing in Gippsland,” he said.

“The fisheries sector is also big in Gippsland with the Lakes Entrance fishing port.

“Primary production across the board is critical to the future of Gippsland’s success.

“And linking that to my transport portfolio, getting products to market is a significant cost and one where government investment in better roads or rail links is fundamental to the success of farming businesses.”

Asked whether he aspired to hold the Agriculture Minister’s role like Mr McGauran once did, he said, “That’s a really difficult question to ask a member of parliament”.

“Your first role is always to be a good local member and my ambition is to be the best local member I can be and then to be recognised and given a promotion firstly into the defence role and now transport,” he said.

“I’m just honoured to have that opportunity and you want to be as good as you can possibly be and not be too worried about what sort of future decisions might be made about your career by other people.

“I’m someone who’s very conscious of an old saying that says, ‘It’s later than you think but you haven’t got as much time as you really think you have’.

“I’ve got three years now in this (ministerial) role to implement some reforms that are important to transport but also to get moving on projects like the inland rail.

“Being conscious of the fact that you have to be decisive and move as quickly as reasonably possible and implement reforms in the short time frame that you have between elections, motivates me very strongly.

“I got into politics to make a difference and to make my community better than it was before I started.

“Having the opportunity as a minister now, the challenge is to move as quickly as you can, bring people with you, and then whatever happens with future portfolio opportunities is largely out of my control.”

If some of that answer sounds like a sporting cliché it may well be linked to Mr Chester’s 12 years working in journalism from 1986 to 1998 where he was a typical all-rounder.

Working at a regional newspaper he did everything from court reporting, entertainment writing and sports reporting.

But he said his greatest journalistic interest was covering human interest stories.

Mr Chester said one reason why an increasing number of journalists or people with media experience are now entering politics - like his party colleague and Small Business Minister Michael McCormack - was because they’re inquisitive people.

“You need to be interested in people and interested in issues to be a good member of parliament and they’re similar skills that journalists need,” he said.

“You need a genuine inquiring mind but you also need to ask the right questions.

“Sometimes you’ll get a briefing from the department and it’s important to think about what questions need to be answered and what questions the general public need me to ask on their behalf to justify this legislation or regulation.

“There’s a certain similarity between the minds of politicians and journalists and it makes sense some have made the transition.”

Mr Chester said relocating government agencies like the Murray Darling Basin Authority or the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority from Canberra to regional towns was another way of revitalising regional communities but also improving bureaucratic decision-making capacity.

“An active policy of decentralisation includes consideration of what government departments can be better located in regional towns where they actually live and work alongside the people who are impacted by their decisions,” he said.

“Too many decisions are made by people who are distant from the real world impacts.”