Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Coming to you from Rockingham IPL Radio. Hello and welcome to another podcast from IPL Radio. Today, I'm very honored to have a very special guest, Phil Edmond. So we've been talking now for probably about six months or so.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: I'd say probably about right here.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: We met when I was doing the mental health training at your church.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: And, you know, you shared a little bit of your story. I don't imagine by any means, it's the full story. So I'm hoping that we'll get to that today.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Do you just want to.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: So you were a Liberal mp.
Do you want to just take us back to when you first got elected?
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Well, how it all started was a really bad storm that happened in March 2003.
And I was coming home and there was all these boats all over on the beach, just about on the road. And I woke up, I thought, well, we need a marina here in Rockingham. And that's how it started. I wasn't a member of any party, and some members of the community saw me on the beach trying to pull these boats back into the water because it was really the worst one we ever had. And someone said, why don't we start an action group? And I don't want to do that. So, no, we start this action group and get some people behind us. And so we did. So we started the Rockingham Marina action group in 2003, and we got a lot of support about wanting to get a marina in. In place.
And next thing I know, the Prime Minister of Australia found out what I was doing and he called me.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: I didn't think it was him. I said, it's not John Howard. Yeah, it is John Howard, Phil. Anyway, so once we got past that, he said, we can, you know, can help you with some funds for regional partnerships. I didn't know what that was about. I wasn't even in the party.
So we. I got the council to apply for this. I think it was quarter of a million dollars at the time. And the state government for Jeff Gallop at the time, he matched it. And we got half a million dollars to start the feasibility study for a marina in Rockingham. And I was like, wow, this is great.
But he came the big cost. And I was a knock on my door saying, why don't you join the Liberal Party?
Oh, what? And I said, okay.
And then John Howard wanted to meet me. So I flew over to Canberra and. And I've never been so scared in my life.
And I found this old suit because I'M a cabinet maker by trade, you know. And I found a suit and I remember the suit being completely filled with sweat. Cause I was just so scared of being in camera.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: He was a formidable figure, wasn't he?
[00:02:29] Speaker B: And a short little fellow though, when I met him and he just said, did you get the money for the marina? I said, yeah, yeah. And he said, you know, why don't you think about standing in politics?
And I said, prime Minister. I says, I'm a cabinet maker by trade. I haven't been to university, you know, I'm not that well educated. He goes, no, no, no, you just got to work hard and you're a business guy, you know, this is the sort of thing, you know, and you'd be able to get more money for your community. I said, really? Yes.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: So I decided to run. So I joined the Liberal Party and I ran in 2004, I think it was. It was a 12 and a half percent safe labour seat under Kim Beazley. And I liked Kim. Kim was actually a nice guy.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: And I met with him about the Marina too, you know.
And anyway, I didn't really get a lot of money from the party because there's no hope in hell you're going to win that.
And I just sort of door knocked and met people and wrote letters and it was pretty simple what I thought, what I was doing. And I got the shock of my life on election night and it turned into a 4% marginal seat. So Brand became a marginal seat. I actually got the biggest primary vote gain in Australia for that election, which no one could believe, including me.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: So. And then the seat was really hot. Poor Kim was moved off that seat and that was sort of the end of his political future, I think.
And I just continued on for the next election.
I got things like the stadiums at Lark Hill, Mondayjong Road extension and that John Howard gave us the money for that.
Or the waterfront village as well. There's about $25 million that I got in for Quinah and Rockingham, you know, and I wasn't even a Member of Parliament.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: That's the case though, isn't it? For like, it doesn't matter whether it's a Labor seat or a Liberal seat if it's safe.
There's no investment, there's no motivation to
[00:04:18] Speaker B: invest from my political experience. Yes, they're not, they're not going to pour money into it unless. Unless there's a chance of winning it either side, you know, so one. But yeah, I didn't win Brand. Gary Gray won It, you know what, in all fairness, because I'm not a liberal anymore, I thought Gary Gray actually was a good member.
He did a lot for Rockingham than any other federal MP we've ever had here. And yeah, he was, he was really, really good.
So. But yeah, then there was a state election. I didn't really want to run. I said, no, I've done my time, thanks for the money, for my community. And Rockingham was looking pretty good and I'd had enough, that was it. But I was asked to stand and be on the ticket for the upper house and so I did and I won a seat.
So I kept my. My office was in Civic Boulevard in Rockingham. Yeah, and the signs steer up there. They haven't taken it down yet, they'll be ripping it down tomorrow. But my signs steer up there.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: I remember when I moved to rockingham, probably in 2009, I think it was. I remember seeing your name up on the, on the building there.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: All right, stay there. Yeah, that'll ripped it down. So. But yeah, so I just, I kept my office there because my heart's in this area, always has been.
And I just started getting into issues like I did as a candidate. And you know that the worst thing is in my eight years of being an mp, I fought Colin Barnett, the premier, more than I did the Australian Labor Party, which, you know, it's sad that that was the case. You know, synthetic drugs, they'd only ban the chemical composition. They'd never ever actually banned it outright. And I had to do some illegal things there. You know, we went to the drug shops here that were selling the psychoactive drugs and I brought it to Parliament.
Jeff Parry saw me and he said, listen, he wanted me to smoke it on tv. I said, I'm not doing that. But I remember the police minister at the time said, if you don't give it up, we're going to arrest you. I said, no worries, I'll hand myself into police. So I handed myself into the police at Rockingham and was formally arrested. Oh, wow, that's marijuana, is it? I had to do that in order for the government to actually fix the drug problem we had with these legal psychotic active drugs.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: I actually remember that. I remember because there was a special name for them and.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Synthetic. Synthetic.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Synthetic, yeah. So I guess the problem is that you don't know what's in there. It's not natural marijuana.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: No, I won't say who because he's well known, but a well known counsellor, a really respected man.
He asked me to do something about it because his son was addicted to it. By the time I got this bill through Parliament and made it law, he'd already died. So he lost his only son. And I actually dedicated that bill in Parliament to him.
And I was very late in trying to fix it. But remember, I was only a backbencher. I wasn't a minister either, so. But yeah, you know, I was going to Japan to get a waste to energy plant into Kwinana. Not the so called bathhouse massage. We're happy to talk about that.
There was sharks that I was the one that wanted to use shark shields, which the Labor Party actually brought, took it on and they got into power.
So there was all sorts of things I was doing on the ground there. I was against local government amalgamation, although there was a shocking policy.
So I just spent a lot of time fighting them, especially with the Kunana industrial strip where they wanted to put those huge big tankers of fuel right next to Kwanana's only family park. I thought surely there must be somewhere else to put it. But yeah, of course made a lot of enemies.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: So you were fighting more the Liberals than you?
[00:07:51] Speaker B: I was. I was fighting more the. So you know, in Kwanana they needed about $6 million as a state government contribution to start the revitalization of the city of Kwana and they couldn't get it.
So I came up with an idea of actually selling land parcels in Kwinata that I didn't need and putting that money back into the project. And I got it ticked off and I actually went and saw Roger Cook because he was the member and I got on really well with Roger. I steered it today and I said, Roger, I want to do this. You're going to cause me any problems. And he worked with me and there was a few things he wasn't happy with. And I said, fine, we'll leave that parcel alone.
But in some ways Roger and I did that together.
And so here you've got a Liberal MP working with a Labor MP in Kwinana.
It doesn't, it doesn't sort of sound right, does it?
[00:08:42] Speaker A: No, but I guess that's politics though, isn't it? Because like, yeah, if you're. You're kind of butting heads with the people in the Liberal Party and getting on better with Labour, it's.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it was. Well, Mark McGowan, I don't think I was ever his favorite person and you know, I didn't think Mark, where he's put the Saxon Ranger was a really silly place and he Knew that. And I'd mentioned in Parliament and, you know, I'd poked that bear many times, so I had it coming to me one day.
But, you know, at the end of it, 2017, I was completely fried. I'd had enough. Yeah, you know, 14, you know, years straight fighting and fighting and fighting for facilities and, you know, you just get exhausted. And my kids were getting older and I wasn't at home and I was. I think it was a time it was even loneliness because I was away.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: You and Canberra a lot then?
[00:09:37] Speaker B: No, no, just. You were just overseas doing things or. Parliament also sits quite late, so I don't know what the standing orders are now, but you wouldn't get out of parliament until 11 o' clock at night, you know, so you're there at like 8:30 to 11 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays they're very late nights and then you've got to try and go to sleep. So, you know, I don't know if they changed it, but in those days, regardless of what political party you're in, it was hard. You know, I really respect anybody that was doing the job. People don't have any idea of what the hours are.
But yeah, so I had enough after 2017 and, you know, I warned the Liberal Party then. I thought, we're going to get annihilated and I thought we needed to change leaders. So I was involved in a spill which wasn't successful and we were sort of looking at Dean Nauder at the time and that all went pear shaped. But, yeah, pretty much made as many enemies as you possibly could, I think, on both sides by that stage.
And then. Yeah.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Was there a big push to change the leadership then?
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. At one stage we nearly had the numbers and, you know, we should have gone at that time, but they left a little bit too late and there was, you know, it went the other way, so. And look what happened to the Liberal Party. You know, we got annihilated in 2017. Look at the figures. In 2021 they had two lower house members. You know, I think David honey. David Honey for Cotteslow and I think was Levy met him. That's all they had.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Out of a huge team, there was two members left, so something had gone wrong.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: And the last one I was expecting, I wasn't expecting Liberals to win the last election because, you know, they were coming from such far way back, but I was kind of expecting it to go more Liberals way. I think the Labour were as well, to be honest, and I think they went backwards.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, the numbers have increased now under Basil Zemplus. I think Basil's a wonderful guy. I mean, I've spoken to Basil, you know, he's come down to meet the homeless with me just recently. He's met my son.
I honestly think that Basil Zemplas could possibly be one of the best premiers we've had since Sir Charlie Court. And I hold him that high in regard of people that I've met. He's really a genuine human being.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: So what do you like about him?
[00:11:51] Speaker B: He's a team player, he consults, he has a heart. You know, the phone's always on, you know, he doesn't like I'm not talking to him. He'll talk to. And when I brought him down to the homeless, I said, basil, just be very careful where you go. I've picked out a few people, you know, and I do the same for Magenta Marshall too.
And Nat didn't want to listen to me. He said, no, I want to walk the whole thing. And I went, oh, geez. And boy, that was dangerous because there's a few of them that are suffering with mental health. Yeah, I mean, you can understand that. And, you know, they were quite vocal and a little bit physical, throwing things and things like that. But, yeah, he didn't care. He wanted to go, he wanted to see them all and he wanted to see what it was like.
I admire that.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Even though I was trying to protect him that day. But, you know, I'm not a member of the Liberal Party anymore and I get on with Magenta Marshall too.
So I chair the Point Perrin Restoration Committee that looks after that park.
And it wasn't so long ago I brought Magenta down and we had a lovely walk around and, you know, just tell her this was before we had the homeless issue.
So I speak to her, I've spoke to Madeleine, I speak to Basil, spoken to the candidate for one night. It's just like I talk to everybody that's going to do something for our area.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: It's non like political party, like tribalism, is it? It's more about who can actually make a difference.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: I think so.
And I hope that's what happens with the secret Harbour by election that's coming up. I hope we find the right candidate that's going to do the right thing for the people, not play party politics, actually get in some facilities, amenities for the things that we need, you know. But anyway, look, I had an awful time, as the public knows, in 2019, I had the triple C invade my house and invade my business and they thought there was something untoward there that I'd done.
And you know, I have to own my mistakes and I did make some mistakes and I made some very bad, immoral mistakes. And without getting sued on your program. I won't mention any names.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: But you know, did I go to the strippers? Yep. 100. And who did I go with? I went with the media.
I went to the main media, but I won't say who because I don't want to dub any of them in. But you know, I take them out to, I think it was Romney restaurant when it was there. And then after that we'd have a few wines, talk about what I, what I was doing and then we'd pop in there for, for a beer later.
And I claimed it, which was wrong.
But my intention was because I was trying to get my way with that certain media company so I could get my stories out there.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: So it was more kind of whining and dining. You just happened to see it was.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: But it was a dumb mistake of mine to go take them to the bloody strippers. I shouldn't have done that. And claiming it was wrong. And yeah, it was something I have to live with that I did.
And the Japanese bathhouse, I'm sorry, there is a Japanese bath house. Is not a prostitute. Okay. And no, I, I have not gone to Japan to do that sort of thing.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Is that like a mass use kind of thing?
[00:14:54] Speaker B: It's something you should do. I tell everybody, if you're going to go there, go and do a bathhouse massage. It's like 400 years old. Yeah, I went there with my family, you know, in 2019 as well. It's so, it's, it's. I felt a bit embarrassed the fact that it was made out to something like that and it wasn't.
But once again that was in my own time. But there was a staffer from the government that took us there and that was what was wrong, which we didn't know, but it was wrong. And so that made the news, you know. Yeah, apart from that, you know, out of the whole eight years of Parliament, you know, what it was about is I'd incorrectly claimed as a tax deduction over eight years, eight grand.
Which I went to the tax office and said, look, I think I've made some boo boos here. Can I fix it all up? And I did before it blew up. But that didn't come out in the report either. It didn't matter what I did.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: I was gonna get, I guess when the media gets hold of a story like that, though, they can be relentless, eh?
[00:15:45] Speaker B: I never. It was, it was bloody awful. And then when the report came out, I said, that's not true. Half of it is wrong, you know, but it didn't matter. You couldn't repeal it, you couldn't challenge it. So that's her opinion and that's the end of it, you know, but yeah, that. I actually got fined for all of that too. And it wasn't because I went to the strippers and it wasn't because of the so called laptop that certain people in a community just love to rave about.
I got done because I was under a suppression order.
So the Triple C said, we're investigating you and all your friends and everybody else and you're not allowed to tell anybody about it. And if you do, you'll break the law now. So, you know, I got fined for saying, look, I can't talk to you right now. I think my phone's tapped. Crime.
I can't talk to you right now. I'm with the Triple C fine.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: And then how is that a crime?
[00:16:37] Speaker B: It is, it is. I couldn't, I. There was no point. Me, I had to plead not guilty because there's a technicality around it. I just wanted my life back.
And then the biggest one was that the Triple C said you, you stuffed up the investigation by letting your friends know that, you know, we're at your account that's going through the books. And I didn't know I was under a suppression audit. That's the.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: Were they investigating you or someone else? Were they.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: They went through everyone.
Anybody that was. That was connected to me in any shape or form, that was liberal, they were coming after them.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: So, yeah, I got a. I got a fine.
And you know, the funny thing is, my barrister at the time, because I said, I gotta fight this, this is crazy. And he said, if you win, I can guarantee you the government's gonna take you to the Supreme Court and put feeling you better have just taken a. Taking the fine and moving on with your life. It's not worth it. So I took the advice.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: You know what he did? If I did it, he waived all his fees.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:17:33] Speaker B: So. And so I took. Yeah, he just was so sorry for me, what I'd been through. And so I never, I never paid this barrister for what he was worth.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Because he felt sorry what I was going through. I tell you, I was.
Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. So not, not all barristers and lawyers out there are parasites. Some of you actually really good guys.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: He really cares.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Yeah, he really cares. So that's.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: So he was obviously seeing the mental health effects.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: He'd also worked for the Triple C as well, my barrister, so he knew what was going on, you know, and. But yeah, that would probably be the darkest.
Darkest I've ever been through my life, you know, and the point where I didn't really want to live anymore, you know, I was thinking those thoughts. I thought, what's the point? I've been completely destroyed. I couldn't even walk down the shopping centre. It just. I can't explain to you how bad.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Everyone just kept coming up and.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: Not really, but in my mind.
In my mind I just thought I was over, you know, it's hard to explain until you've gone through something like that.
And. Yeah, you just. I was thinking some really bad thoughts and saying that, you know, Kate Doust, who was the president of the upper house at the time, she went to bat for me what they were doing over that laptop, over parliamentary privilege. They went all the way to the Supreme Court. I don't know how many millions it cost, but. And she's Labor. I mean, once again, I thought, how does that work? I've never, ever got to thank Kate Dowse for what she's done and what she did for parliamentary privilege, you know?
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Who was she in the Labor Party?
[00:19:06] Speaker B: She was in the upper house. She was the president of the upper house and a member for South Metro.
So I had. I won't say who, but I had members of the Labor Party ring me up to see if I was ok.
I couldn't believe it. More of them than liberals, believe it or not.
So some of them are really good people.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: I mean, that's the thing, like, when you separate your ideology, your political belief system.
Most people are intrinsically good. That's my personal thing. Yeah, Some people there.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Yep. They'll completely, brutally destroy you. But.
Yeah. No, even the Parliament. And I was no longer an mp, and the.
The upper house clerk rang me up and said, look, we're happy to pay for. For you to go and get some counseling if you need it, because we're really worried about you. I'd been out of politics for two years and they were offering it. Oh, the. The amount of support.
I think that's what kept me going.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: As well.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: You know, there's a lot of people reaching out.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And anyway, so then the report came out. I was in Bali at the time, and then all the media went up trying to find me in Bali. And I just, I just. Because I get on well with Jeff Parry, you know, but he's there to do his job. And Jeff says, I'm coming up. I went, yeah, I know. So I just, I just said, look, I'll come and see in a pub. I just did an exclusive with him.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: And just to get, you know, just. It's done. Dusted.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Just to share your side.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: Well, you know, it didn't matter. The story had to sell around, you know, sex and all this sort of shit.
But as soon as the story was done and I was able to sort of move on with that, but for me, mentally really suffered.
So. And that went on for a few years. You know, I think court was 21 or 22, I think when that finally had finished, because we had covert.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: As well.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: So that was a thing as elephant, isn't it?
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah. So courts were closed and things like that. But anyway, so, you know, I was pretty much the darkest, darkest place I've ever, ever been in my life.
And I was, you know, I don't know how many times I'd look at the ceiling in my bedroom, you know, what's the point anymore? You know?
[00:21:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: And anyway, I was asleep. This might be hard for some of your listeners to understand too, but I'm just. This is the truth. And you know, I haven't been a church going person. I think last time I went to church was in 1986.
So I didn't really have much to do with any of that sort of thing. But I had this really bad dream back in May 2023, and this was. Poor guy, like he was getting the absolute Kajiba's punched out, even spat at, ridiculed. His body was lifeless and people were just pounding him. He was on some mountain hill or whatever. It was the most disturbing thing I've ever seen any bloke ever gone through.
And I just thought, you know, if there was a God, seriously, you know, how about you knock him off? Well, I was a farmer with sheep, you know, so, you know, I'm very humane in that sort of way. You put him down if they're in that much pain. And he just kept going, this poor bloke.
And anyway, they grabbed him and shoved him up against a post. It was a post.
And I said the most stupidest thing you could, you know, you could say this guy was just a mess. And I went up to him and said, mate, are you all right?
And then everything changed.
And then I saw this guy, he had the brightest face with that much light I'd ever seen.
And he had this conditional love in his face, like, more than anything, it's physically possible on this earth. And I went, whoa, this is blinding. And yeah, it was the man. Wow. And I went, whoa. And it was sort of like a message, like, okay, you've been punched up, you've had a rough time, it's time for you to get up and move forward.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: And I thought, well, I Woke up at 3 o' clock in the morning, I couldn't go to sleep. I thought, well, that's, that's amazing. For five days that man's face blinded me. You know when you look at the sun.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Which you shouldn't do, listeners, you shouldn't look at the sun's badge of yours.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: But now and again you look and you get those kind of coming up.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: I had that for five days with his face.
I honestly thought I'd lost my marble. So that's it, Phil's lost his marbles. I'm off to Heathcote if that's the year round, or Grey Lance and my young 11 year old son. I was driving from Anne or going to the markets and my son said, dad, are you all right? I said, yeah, I'm fine. No, you're not. Tell me. I know when something's not right with you. He's only 11. And so I told him, I said, well, you don't tell your mother, I said, because she'll think I've gone nuts.
And he said to me, he said, dad, he said, that's a sign you got to go back to church. I said, no, I'm not going back to church.
That's a sign you should go back to church. Anyway, so I did. So I found out who my Catholic church was, which was Our lady of Lourdes parish. And the guy there, his name was Father Pierre at the time. And I just wrote an email and I said, look, I'd like to catch up, want to have a chat. Da da, da da. I remember I hadn't been to church since 86, and the email I got back was, what is your purpose? And I went, I'm not going back. I mean, you know, what's the point? Why don't I go to church? So anyway, back at the.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Did he know who you were?
[00:24:11] Speaker B: No, no, he didn't. Told him a little bit more in the email and he said, oh, come straight down. So I came down that Thursday and met him.
He believed me and he slowly brought me back into the church and I spent months and months and months with him in sort of a form of counseling, getting a lot of things off my chest. He basically rebuilt me to who I am today.
And, you know, he taught me about forgiveness because I had a lot of anger.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: Against certain people, which I won't say because I don't want to get sued, but obviously this was politically motivated. That happened to me. So I was carrying a lot of anger.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: It sounds like there was some kind of stuff behind it, but he said
[00:24:54] Speaker B: to me, he goes. He goes, one day you'll face your enemies again. I said, like hell I will. I said, never. He goes, you will definitely see them again, I promise you. And then you'll have to make a choice of what you're going to do. What are you going to do? And one of the persons he mentioned was Mark McGowan.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: And I thought, I'm going to see. I don't know about Mark. I don't think I'll ever see him again because he's not living here anymore anyway.
And I had a. Especially with the Attorney General. I mean, is that sort of model?
Anyway, I started getting stronger and more confident and getting my head around all these sorts of things. And believe it or not, yep. I saw Mark McGowan. Wow.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: What did he say?
[00:25:33] Speaker B: And, well, I wasn't looking for him. It was all like, he was looking for me. So I went to the shopping center to get a haircut. I was just walking, walking down there, and I heard this guy yell at Phil.
And I looked around and was Mark.
And I just froze. I didn't know.
Anyway, put his hand up. He actually didn't shake my hand. He says, how you going? And I just said, you should know.
And he goes, look, I know.
I understand what you're saying.
And he just said. He put his hand in. He goes, look, I want you to put it behind you. And he had this really, like, consoling, sort of careful face. And I've known Mark rage. You know, he's not like that. And so I thought I did. So I put my hand out, I said, mark, it's okay, mate. I shook his hand and I said, I've moved on. Don't worry about it. Asleep. And my heart and there's pressure and everything just immediately lifted off my chest.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: That's just the power of forgiveness, isn't it? It's huge.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: And then he said to me, he goes, I want you to meet Magenta Marshall.
I said, okay. And so I met Magenta. And so, yeah, that's why I've got a relationship with her. And she's been a point parent with me. I've got a number and we talk and everything like that. And that's when I truly let it all go.
I think when I saw Mark and I couldn't help myself, I let the premier know as well and he was wrapped. And no matter what happens in life and what anybody's ever done to you or what anger and everything you have, I can tell you right now if you can forgive somebody, even if it's your worst enemy, the lift that comes off you is absolutely incredible. It's like the handcuffs have come off you and you can move forward.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: I like the quote that's attributed to Nelson Mandela, that bearing a grudge is like drinking a poison for yourself and then hoping the other person will die. Yeah, that, you know, the, the bearing a grudge and holding against something isn't affecting them.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: It only affects you. And that act of forgiveness is very cleansing.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Politics is a very brutal game. It is extremely brutal. The most dangerous brutal game, I think that's on this, on this planet, you know.
But anyway, so we sort of moved on from there. And then my wife says to me, she goes, have you seen what's going on Memorial Drive?
And I said, yeah. She says, I'm worried they're going to be living on our lawn soon. They must be all drug affected young people. I says, oh, I don't know about that. Let me go and have a look.
So that was, you know, earlier this year. I went down there and I was, you know, I wasn't scared, but I was like, careful. And then I got the shock of my life. And I didn't find those people that was described to me. I found people that were 60 to 83 years of age, pensioners.
I found mums with kids.
I found really vulnerable, beautiful people living there.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: And I got the shock of my life. I thought, how has this happened? You know, what's. I didn't know. So anyway, I had, we had our point parent meeting and I raised it and they said, Yep, we've got 250 people now living homeless here in the city of Rockingham.
And I said, I didn't. I couldn't believe it. It's like I've been a doze myself. I didn't realize it had got that bad.
And. And so that's when I thought, well, bugger this, I'm gonna help out where I can. And I'd spoken to Magenta about it, and in Magenta's defense, I must say, she actually bought a whole lot of waterproof bags. And she said, if you want, come and pick them up. I thought, well, that was nice of her. So I went. For the first time I've been in a labour office pulling out these two big bags of Labour of Magenta written on. I thought, if anybody sees me with this, this will be funny.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: That would be the end of your political career.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: Well, I don't have one anymore, but I grabbed them out and handed that out. So Magenta did that and, you know, I guess there's only so much she can do with the current situation. But we started handing out aid and not, not food or, or clothes, but essentials like first aid kits, gas stoves, solar panels, you know, all these sorts of things and pill. And. And we do that now through their Ladies of Lords.
So we do that once a month.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: So you've set up your own organization as it.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: I wouldn't say it's mine. It's. It's. I guess I set it up, but it's. It's runs out of our Ladies of Lord's Parish. Yeah. And we do that once a month. And not just Memorial Drive either. They're everywhere. So we'll go all the way down to Welds park and Kwinana. There's a few other people I know living in the bush there and some other.
There's some other places which I won't go into, but obviously, and not just Memorial Drive. You got to go deeper into the bush. Yeah, don't just think it's Memorial Drive. It's deep.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: You got to go, there's so many, isn't there? And like I went with Owen a few months ago to see the problem and see what we could do. And one of the things that they, they said was that there's. There's one type of people that are a Memorial Ave. And there's another type. And because of all the media stuff, it's. It's grown so much and now there's. There's some really genuine cases. Yeah, but there's also someone's causing a bit of hassle.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Look, is there. Is there a few people there that are suffering seriously with mental health that, that are on drugs? Yes, there are. And you know, they've got their stories for how they. I'm sure they didn't want to end up like that in life.
Maybe they were sexually abused when they were kids. You don't know what's happened to them.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: There was one, one old lady who, I think she's about 60 or 70 and she's homeless. In Quanana, she's just carrying her stuff in a trolley. And I found out she was an expat. You know, she's deeply traumatized by the war.
Not got the supports back here. And then she's ended up homeless and obviously into drugs and alcohol and stuff. And when you look at someone's story, you know, it's very easy to write people off and go there with drug addicts, you know, like they're nothing.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: We judge. Yeah, it's easy to judge. And I get it out there because I cop a bit of, you know, slapping on social media some of these posts and that's okay. I can do that and bring up the laptop and, you know, it doesn't affect me anymore.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: But my heart is trying to get these people a roof over their heads. And, you know, you have a thing called basic human needs, and that's a toilet, hot and cold showers. Right. A bed, you know, kitchen safety. They don't have any of that, you know, and there's humanitarian laws around all that as well too, if anybody thinks they're going to move them on.
But, you know, it's. I can't believe that it's got to this state. And, you know, I haven't come in here as a politician by any means, but, you know, what's caused it. We never had these problems during COVID We never had these problems under Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Paul Keating, John Howard. So we're not even going to be political. It doesn't matter which party you vote for. We never had these problems as bad as they are today. And I did a little bit of study about immigration over the last 15 years too. And you know, regardless of political parties, they're letting in between 150 and 180,000 people a year. And that's good. It gives us time to build the houses, put the roads and fix the schools, because you've got to put the infrastructure for the population.
But when this prime minister that we've got now, I mean, he's let in like 1.4 million people in the space of, you know, 26 or 27 months or whatever it was a couple of years, that's a lot of people here in a short period of time for. For everyone to catch up with infrastructure. And so that's what's caused the boom.
So and the stories that I, because I talked to all the homeless, you know, I said, well, how did you end up here? And they said, oh, the landlord put up the rent and, you know, I was paying 300 now it's $700, and I'm a pensioner and I couldn't afford it. Yeah. And I went, all right, so they went, somebody that can afford it, or the. Or the landlord has seen the price of the house in KWINANA Go from 300 grand or 200 grand up to $700,000. And so you can't blame them. You can't blame them, though. And so what do they do? They sell the house.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: And so someone who's looking for a house, even a new immigrant, will buy that. And so that person's living in the bush. And that's the two common stories. Honestly, 95% of them tell me that same thing.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: And, I mean, I've seen, you know, massive spike in, you know, house prices and we had one house that was due for rent on our street and there was something like 25, 30 cars, people, you know, and like, if you're.
Unless you've got a really solid history and lots of money behind you, you're competing against all these different people for the housing.
And so. The housing, I mean. And then we've also got orchestras coming as well, which is a huge.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: You know, that's another huge topic, isn't it?
[00:34:26] Speaker A: Exactly. Right. I mean, we could have a whole podcast around August.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: But you've got all these UK and American soldiers and their families coming in to Rockingham.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: And they're getting priority housing because obviously it's orcas. But then how's that going to make someone feel who's in the bush, who hasn't even got a toilet? And their housing, you know, how do you move on from that?
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Well, you know, there's a young lady, and I won't say a second name, her name's Debbie and she's got four beautiful children.
And they had that boat, the steer, on the beach today, that was theirs. And her partner had a heart attack once. It rocked up on the beach and wrecked itself. So they lost their dad, she lost her partner, and they've been grieving for the last three months and living in a tent, not in Memorial Drive, you know, And I just said, well, how long you been on the waiting list? I understand you got the boat right for somewhere to live. She says, four years.
I said, four years. Says, yeah, we've been waiting four years for someone to get a house.
And I couldn't believe it, saying that. I've had the Department of Communities ring me up about Debbie, because I'm trying to see if I can fundraise for a caravan for her. I'm trying to get Debbie to actually set up a GoFundMe page or I might go and see Rotary Rockingham just to see if I can raise some money to buy her one.
So it's better than living in a tent where she's living now.
But, you know, the Department of Communities are working with me as well. You know, I helped them out to try and get Debbie into the Rocking and caravan park just recently.
And they want to know, you know, how far away the caravan is. So, you know, it's that bad. They're asking me, you know, what can you do? And that's when you know you've got a serious problem. Yeah, a very serious problem here. And it's really, you know, I think you got to put politics aside. And I'm like, I am not politicising this at all.
Has never, ever been the case. I am not running for Parliament, I do not want to be the mayor, I do not want to be a councillor and I don't want any of those sort of things. I've done my time, I'm not interested in going back. But this is my place in Rockingham. I do live here and I'm very passionate. I love the area, I love Quinana Cockburn and I specifically love the city of Rockingham. And it just breaks your heart. Some people live like this, you know, I'm sorry I can't turn a blind eye on it and stay in bed and not do anything about it. I'm just not built that way.
[00:36:50] Speaker A: Would it be fair to say, like from all the things that you said that, you know, you did as an MP and with the homeless stuff, would you say maybe that you're less maybe a politician and more like more of an activist where you actually want to. It's not like the political rough and tumble, but it's actually the heart that you have of seeing change and getting jobs done.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: It's like poor ken. Ken's a 78 year old man.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: And when I saw him six months ago, said, phil, don't worry about me, I'm fine. My daughter's getting me a house soon. I'm okay. Worry about everybody else. He's a beautiful guy, Kent, and he cleans up, up to everybody. He actually looks after the park. He's that sort of a guy. If anybody's a, a Samaritan, there's this guy, Kentucky. Anyway, I saw him about two months ago and he said, my daughter sort of left me flat. I can't get anything now. Can you Help me out. I said, well, I'll register on St. Pat's portal, because you need to do that if you want some housing.
And he told me a bit about his story, how he passed out one night in the bush and he broke his hip and he had to get a hip replacement. And then after that, he recovered in his car.
Now, I couldn't believe it, you know, I just went, you've got to be kidding me. So anyway, we were lucky around that time. I think it's a miracle, maybe from God, but someone came forward in our church and donated a caravan.
I know exactly who needs that. So I picked it up and he's now living in there.
So you can't believe his luck. Yeah, at the moment. So that's huge, you know. Is that political?
No, that's just helping people out, you
[00:38:25] Speaker A: know, and maybe connecting people.
Yeah.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: Look, I think the. The generosity of the people in the city of Rockingham, I'll tell you, apart from all the negative stuff, there's some beautiful people out there.
[00:38:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: I have met people that go out there and do meals, donate clothes as the knitters. This group of ladies down the dome that need everything. You know, I think Bill Massey's doing that. That's beautiful. You know, they go out there and they need all the stuff and give it to them. You see some beautiful things, especially with Orange sky, with the volunteers down there that do the washing machines and dryers. These people aren't getting paid for it.
[00:38:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:59] Speaker B: They're doing it out of volunteers, isn't it? We really are blessed in the city of Rockingham with all the facilities that we have, including the Salvos. You know, we've got the support there, but it isn't a roof over their heads. So we've got all of that. Yes, we've got the free washing and knitting and, you know, food. It's wonderful. But it's not a house. Yeah, that we have. I'm sure you have a house too, don't you? I have a house, you know, and it's just a simple basic requirement for any human being that lives on earth.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: So how do we.
How do we get people moved? Moved into houses?
[00:39:35] Speaker B: You've got to give us. You got to give the government. Look, I think you've got to give the state government and you've got to give time to catch up with the needs.
And I don't think Canberra has been helpful over the amount of immigrants that they've let in, in such a period of time.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: And like I said, it's not Picking on the Labor Party because Labor Party's been in power many times before. They've never done that before. All right, but that's. You've got to really halt that now. Apparently there's a cap on it now of 185,000 people. I don't think that's going to happen. I think they're going to blow it again.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:09] Speaker B: Until you get that under control and just slow it down, then you give people time to catch up and put the infrastructure in and then that will go away. But if you're going to keep letting in, you know, 1.4 million people in here over that period of time, this is just going to get worse.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, and I guess, I mean, the infrastructure isn't keeping with that number.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: Look at the freeway, look at the schools.
Look, look at, look. Look at our public infrastructure. It's so much under pressure right now.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:41] Speaker B: Okay. Was that like that during COVID No.
Was it like that in 2019? I don't believe. No. And, like, I've been sharing this park since 2014.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: And I said we ran out of the city of Rockingham. The state government sits on it and the local government sits on it. Rotary sit on it, and so does the Artillery Society. And, you know, we've never had this issue at Point Perrin before. It's only been the last 12 months.
So it's been like this for all the time. No, it hasn't. All right. Yes, there probably has been some people living in their cars, living on the beach from New South Wales. Of course, there's probably been a little bit of homeless.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: I'm not saying that, but not the scale.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: Wow. 250 people in the city of Rockingham right now living in the bush. Give me a break. Yeah. You know, give us a break.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Is this problem with the homelessness across WA or is it focusing mainly on
[00:41:31] Speaker B: Rocking Heavy from my study?
Sure, it's happening everywhere in Australia, but not as bad as here.
You know, there's places where they are living.
I'd like to know if anybody's got 250 people living in the bush anywhere else in Australia right now compared to what's happening in this area.
And in the fairness, the city of Rockingham, you know, they're not just coming from here, you know, they're coming obviously through Secret Harbour, but also from Mandarin. They're coming from Kwanana as well. There's a catchment.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:00] Speaker B: Where they're coming.
So it's in this vicinity, you know, and that's. Like I said, it's mainly due because, you know, people are losing their homes. So these people actually have lived in a house but they can't afford the rent or they've been booted out.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: So who obviously we all can advocate to, you know, raise the awareness and stuff, but this like the state government.
I'm assuming it's the state government that could do something.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: Is it, do you think the state government is trying to build as much social housing as they can at the moment there's a waiting list of 23,000 people to get into a house and you've got people like Debbie that's been waiting four years.
So, you know, there's a huge catch up. But in all fairness with this, how do you expect whichever is in power of the state government when you've got that many people coming through the doors compared to when we used to have a cap of 150 to 180,000 people? This is just pure mathematics.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: You don't have to be a genius to figure this one out. Right. Until you curve that and you and you.
[00:43:05] Speaker A: I'm not saying stop, that's a federal thing.
[00:43:07] Speaker B: It is, but you can.
I'm not saying stop immigration because you still have to have some immigration coming through, but you've really got to cut it down quite quickly to what they've done.
And until you do that, this isn't going to go away. I don't care what Roger Cook or the Labor Party or whoever government says, they're doing all these things, that's all wonderful. But until you curve the intake, it's just going to be more and more problems. You're going to have more of it. When's it going to stop?
[00:43:34] Speaker A: You know, what are your thoughts on like hybrid housing?
Because one of the problems that they've got at the moment is they build a whole pile of houses. It takes time.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: It does.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: And you know, in the year or so that they're building some more houses, more and more people will find themselves homeless.
So there's some suggestion about, you know, having a block of land and then just buying a whole heap of these, like small caravans or.
[00:44:02] Speaker B: Yeah, good idea that.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Do you think that would work?
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Well, you know, Peter Hudson, who's a councillor at the city of Rockingham, he actually pretty sure he won a vote recently to get a committee together to actually look at some of the land in the area, including Point Perrin, to see if we could actually do something along those lines. I don't know where Peter's got with that with the state government, but if you know the area very well on Perrin Road, before you get into the. Off to the causeway to HMO Stirling, that used to be the Perth rsl that all got cleared out and flattened, which I have to say that was for the marina, but, you know, that's all flat now. I mean, that's a perfect spot. Spot that you could do for. For, you know, that sort of tourism, I could say. So you could put in some of those sort of cabins and. And that sort of thing there with. With some space for. For caravans.
I think that'd be a great idea. And yes, you know, that's great for people that haven't got a house.
You know, these are normal people. They're people experiencing being homeless. They're not. You know what I mean? There has to be that respect for them as well. Yeah.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: And whether. Whatever the cause, I mean, even if it's drugs and alcohol or, you know, mental health, they still need empathy and support, not. Not judgment, don't they?
[00:45:17] Speaker B: That's it.
And I have to be. I have to be careful how I say things too, because, you know, I've been corrected once or twice with how I talk about these people. Yeah. They are people experiencing being homeless. They're no different than you and me.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: No.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: You know, some of them I'm actually very good friends with and, you know, some of them have gone off into caravan parks paid by Santa Care, which is a Catholic church organisation.
And I still talk to them to see how they're going and where they are and what they're up to. Mainly because I don't want to see them back in Memorial Drive.
The idea is to move them out of Memorial Drive, not to have more people there, you know, but the state government, you know, they've put a CCTV there. We've got rubbish bins there now for the people at Memorial Drive, they've just put some big signs there telling people to slow down. There's people doing like 80, 90 kilometres an hour in a 50 zone to go to work.
You know, it's crazy. You gotta slow down if you're gonna. You know, and there's people walking around, there's kids.
[00:46:11] Speaker A: It's great kids there.
[00:46:12] Speaker B: Right? Yeah, definitely.
So the government's put that into.
Look, I know it's not toilets, but I can't say they've completely sat on their hands and done nothing.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: You know, and. And the government's been down there and cleaned it up a few times as well, so I can't say they've sat on their hands completely. With Memorial Drive. Look, it is an issue. It's a major artery, the hmas Sterling.
And I can understand the embarrassment of that suit of the federal government that they're there. It's not a good look.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: You want to bring the Orcas guys in?
[00:46:44] Speaker B: Well, I don't know. You know, if you want to move them on. Where are you going to move them on to? Yeah, this is the thing. Where do they move to if you want to move them on? And I just underline again, there's humanitarian laws now.
[00:46:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:57] Speaker B: That this country has signed up to.
And so you want to be very mindful of doing that as well.
So.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:47:05] Speaker A: All right. Well, I feel like we could probably do a few more podcasts together. I think you've got a lot to bring.
We might wrap it up for today. So is there a final thought that you want to leave our listeners with?
[00:47:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that is, I think, be careful not to judge somebody, even whatever that person has done in life, and whether it's your enemy, your friend, forgiveness is the key.
And just remember, life is very, very short here. And spend more time loving each other than hate.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: Awesome. That's a really cool way to end. Yeah. I just want to thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story.
I feel like sometimes when stories get into the media, you know, we look at the story, we don't really look at the person in that story.
And, you know, what you've been through is. Was pretty horrific, but I think it's really cool that, you know, God intervened and brought you out. So I think that's such a. An amazing story.
[00:48:05] Speaker B: And I know that would be very hard for some listeners to even believe that that's true, but I can tell you the honest truth. That's what I saw.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: You showed me a picture of it as well.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: Well, yeah, there was actually. A shroud of Turin has now been proved to be real. That was what Christ was. Was. Was wrapped in. And so they used some software to figure out what he actually looked like.
So I had that not so long ago. But, you know, he'd been bashed and he was bruised, everything like that. So I cleaned him up a little bit myself. And the picture that I've shown you, that's pretty close to the guy that I saw that night, which is incredible. So, yeah, I believe that's him, definitely, you know, so, yeah, look, I've been very blessed. I wish everybody had that experience that I had, but I was just very lucky to have that. And it's pretty much a kick up my bum to get me going again at the end of the day and help support people living in the bush.
No worries.
[00:48:57] Speaker A: Awesome. Thanks so much for coming to you from Rockingham IPL Radio.
