Hard work pays off

By Casey Neill
NEW La Trobe MP Laura Smyth is all ears.
The Labor candidate last week claimed victory in the seat and expects the Australian Electoral Commission to formally announce her win within days.
She’ll replace Liberal candidate Jason Wood, who represented La Trobe for the past six years.
“During the course of the campaign I and a team of volunteers doorknocked well over 10,000 houses and called several thousand people,” she said.
“For me that has been an incredibly valuable exercise and I’m intending to continue that as a local member.”
Ms Smyth plans to hold mobile offices throughout the electorate each month, door knock and make phone calls – meet people.
“Really, that’s my key priority for the area,” she said.
“The bulk of what I will have to do as a local member is to actually help individual residents, community groups and just ensure that people have access to government services.”
The 33-year-old said health, education, infrastructure, employment and environment issues topped her to-do list.
“I have certain fairly fixed views about what I’d like to see happen locally,” she said.
“But I’m also very much about listening to the community’s needs and really genuinely want to hear from people.”
Ms Smyth had considered running for parliament “for a while”.
“I’ve been in politics since I was 16 and always really had an interest in social justice issues particularly,” she said.
“As a lawyer I’ve built up some skills in terms of advocacy and analytical thinking and really applying a bit of rigour to policy issues. So I think this is a really great opportunity to do that and also to represent a local community which really need a strong advocate.”
Ms Smyth has lived in Ferntree Gully for just over a year. She and her family arrived in Australia from Ireland in the 1980s and settled in the south-eastern suburbs.
She completed a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Law with honours at Monash University in Clayton, serving as the National Union of Students’ Victorian branch president during her studies.
She’s worked as a corporate and commercial lawyer for almost a decade and is currently completing a Masters in Law at University of Melbourne with an international and human rights law focus.
Ms Smyth will be based at the Berwick electorate office at Unit 3, 16 Langmore Lane.
Readers can send an email to laura.smyth@australianlabor.com.au to share their ideas for La Trobe.