One Nation MP begins rural city stay

NEWLY elected state upper house MP Rikkie–Lee Tyrrell is set to call Wangaratta home for at least the next six months, last week taking over the electoral office previously held by Tania Maxwell. The first One Nation MP to ever be elected to Victorian Parliament, who hails from Invergordon just north of Shepparton, joins Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell and Nationals MP Gaelle Broad in providing a new look to the Northern Victoria electorate, which is rounded out by returning Liberal MP Wendy Lovell and Labor's Jaclyn Symes. Having moved to the region in 2018 as part of a dairy farming family, Ms Tyrrell said her decision to join One Nation a year later had been fueled by a desire to improve agriculture outcomes and address water legislation for regional Victorians. "I started asking questions and then I approached our local member (Tim McCurdy) and the Nationals said 'why don't you run for the seat of Shepparton?' – I did a bit more research and the Nationals (weren't) the right fit for me," she said. "One Nation was the only (party) which had a water policy that I could understand – which a lot don't have – and they also they had a history of consistently trying to fix the problems the right way. "I realised I had a bit of a knack for being able to tackle the issues for farmers from a different angle, so I could contribute better to agriculture on this side of the fence than milking cows. "Water impacts our seat so much – the whole of Northern Victoria was grown on the backbone of agriculture, so without that it's going to impact a lot of people." Despite grabbing headlines in recent years due to high–profile antics in parliament by federal member Pauline Hanson, Ms Tyrrell said One Nation's state policies had been largely dictated by herself and party president Warren Pickering, with an eye to being hands–on within the community. "Pauline just quickly looked over (our policies) and said 'yeah, that fits within our values,'" she said. "A lot of people (say) we're racist redneck hicks and I always say point to one policy that says we're racist and that stumps them. "I'm definitely not the type of representative and the party's not that type of party where we rely on boards that are created for politicians – we don't like to play Chinese whispers. "We like to go out there first hand and hear it ourselves and see it ourselves – so if we're not in the office at any point, ring up and make an appointment so we're here." To contact Ms Tyrrell, email rikkilee.tyrrell@parliament.vic.gov.au.