Fran fires off

By Kath Gannaway
OUT-GOINGMcEwen MP Fran Bailey says she won’t go quietly when it comes to standing up for bushfire victims.
She followed up her bombshell announcement with a scathing attack on the reconstruction effort labelling it as “too bureaucratic, too hierarchical, too slow, too inefficient and just too frustrating”.
After serving the McEwen electorate for 17 years, and tipped as more than likely to be returned for another term, Ms Bailey said last Tuesday that she will retire at the next election.
“How many times do you hear that someone has stayed too long,” she offered by way of explanation.
“I never wanted to be in that position, I always wanted to be fresh and energetic in the job.”
Ms Bailey said she had agonised over the decision which had been made with more than a tinge of sadness.
“I was considering this in late January early February but then the bushfires came through and there was no way I could go out and tell my community I was leaving at the time when I believe I would be most needed,” she said.
The next Federal election must be held before April 2011, but with talk of an early election Ms Bailey said the time was right to give someone else an opportunity to step up to the plate.
While Ms Bailey is quick to point out she is not retired yet – “it’s business as usual in this office,” she said – the decision has also brought a sense of relief.
It will be no holds barred, for the remainder of her term, when it comes to speaking out about what she sees as the mismanagement of the State Government on the bushfire recovery.
“My staff and I have worked very hard over the last nine months and I will be very forthright in criticising the model in place to rebuild these communities,” Ms Bailey said.
She said she had vowed from the beginning not to politicise such a tragic event.
“It would have been seen to be politicising and I have bent over backward not to do that because it was not going to help people rebuild their lives.
“I feel a great sense of relief that I am now able to tell it as it really is.”
The way it is, according to Ms Bailey, is that the wrong rebuilding and recovery model was adopted in the first place, and the bushfire devastated communities are suffering from the bureaucracy of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA) model put in place.
“The VBRRA model is preventing any fast-tracking of decisions, and preventing some decisions being made at all,” she said.
“When you link up the problems of Murrindindi Shire, a small rural shire that is so out of its depth, you have immense problems.”
On the Labor front, both Rob Mitchell and Andrew McLeod – both previous Bailey election opponents – will vie for pre-selection for the most marginal seat in Australia – held by just 31 votes.