I’m pleased to see Frank McGuire elected MLA for Broadmeadows. To tweak an old saying: You can take the boy out of Broadmeadows but you can’t take Broadmeadows out of the boy. Frank has always been proud of his home town and always on the look out to support it. The fact that he lives in Brighton is irrelevant to how he will do his new job.
His involvement in the Global Learning Village shows why Frank will be a great local member. He embraced a new way of doing things and then went about getting support for it from high flyers and reluctant bureaucrats. Persisting when others might have thrown in the towel.
He is an enthusiast and a glass half full kind of guy. I worked with him on the republic campaign (a long time ago) and he was always full of ideas, racing a few steps ahead of everyone else, getting some of them up and not wasting time mourning the ones that didn’t get picked up. He has always supported progressive causes, been a member of his union, ready to join a campaign.
But underneath the hail fellow well met exterior is plenty of steel and a forensic eye for detail as his journalism, including two Gold Walkleys, attests.
The order of the runner-ups is interesting. Failure of the Green Party to improve its vote might mean they have peaked in traditional Labor strongholds and it will be downhill from here. Hard to see why Greg Barber expects a strong result in Council elections. That the DLP and Sex Party received the same vote is good fun but maybe just confirms they are both marginal parties – now and in future. A strong vote for an Independent respected in one of the ethnic communities is a good sign. Hopefully of increased political activism on their own account rather than as fodder in cynical branch stacking exercises.
The swing against Labor probably reflects the circumstances, but Frank will be wise to use it to argue for more attention for his electorate. No doubt he will.
Here is a Photo of a much younger Frank courtesy of political journo Ryan Sheales who tweeted it around on Frank’s first day in Parliament.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I was interesting how the media went only to the aspect that Frank no longer lived in the area and failed to pick up on any of the work he had done for the community. It is a shame we have such selective media. And I agree he will do well for the area.