Steve Whan described it as "horrible" the campaign to undermine Terry Campese, Labor's previous candidate for Monaro in the upcoming NSW election, became personal.
A latecomer to the hustings to replace Campese after he withdrew, Whan said he "kind of expected" to get a phone call from NSW Labor leader Chris Minns and took some time to consider whether he would once again jump back into the political fray.
Mr Whan is the primary contender opposing sitting Nationals member, Nichole Overall, who won the seat comfortably in a byelection last year after the resignation of the Nationals' former deputy premier John Barilaro in October 2021.
NSW will go to the polls on March 25, with the Monaro electorate - which takes in Bungendore, Queanbeyan, Cooma, Bombala, Jindabyne and Braidwood - having a long history of swinging between Labor and the Nationals.
"I was very enthusiastic about Terry's candidacy because it's important to bring a diversity of people to parliament and his work in the community was great, so I thought that was very positive," he said.
"I was disappointed when he stood down.
"Politics is very tough and it's horrible when it get personal - and it shouldn't.
"That aspect of the politics ... it's kind of nasty and when you think about it, well, why would you want to do it? But if you don't do it, you don't get to make a difference."
While the call from the party leader to run against a well-funded local member who grabbed a 46 per cent share of first-preference votes last year was not unexpected, Mr Whan was also keen to hear Labor's plan for the future should it win the nine seats required to defeat Premier Dominic Perrottet's Liberal-National coalition government.
Son of the late Bob Whan, a wool-classer who famously rode into politics during the 1972 federal election, winning Eden-Monaro and helping to bring Gough Whitlam to power, Steve Whan is Canberra born but very much the Queanbeyan local. Both his children attended Karabar High School. His daughter now teaches there.
He is regarded within Labor ranks as "a safe pair of hands" for a fiercely parochial electorate. He won Monaro for Labor back in 2003, with the building of the Queanbeyan and Bombala hospitals two of the best-known subsequent gains for the electorate. He held a number of senior portfolios during his previous stint in NSW politics, including rural affairs and primary industries.
But Mr Barilaro proved his nemesis. He lost to the controversial Nationals member twice - once in 2011 by a margin of just 2 per cent and again in 2015 - which prompted a shift out of politics and into the role of chief executive officer of the National Irrigators Council.
As the biggest population centre in Monaro, Queanbeyan is the key to winning the seat. Traditionally, the candidate who carries Queanbeyan comfortably then carries the electorate.
But the outlying rural areas have their share of specific, localised issues. Bombala desperately needs aged care facilities, while a housing shortage has gripped Jindabyne, Cooma and even Braidwood.
"The really interesting thing about the Monaro electorate is its enormous diversity and the growth of Googong, with all the young families out there, is a new input since I ran last time," he said.
A key challenge ahead, he said, was in tackling the issues around the shortage of nursing and teaching staff.
From July, as a recommendation from the Aged Care Royal Commission, all aged care facilities will need to have a registered nurse on duty 24/7. Mr Whan said creating mechanisms which retain current nursing and teaching professionals and identifying pathways to bring in more was critical.
"In every election I ever run in, health has always been one of the consistent issues and ... the staffing issues and the appropriate resourcing of schools is another key issue," he said.
With thousands of people living over the border and working in the ACT, closer cooperation on cross-border issues were in dire need of revitalisation.
A memorandum of understanding on transport and other shared cross-border services such as health and roads was signed back in 2020 but the COVID pandemic applied the brakes on those important discussions.
"I think that cooperation between levels of government is something I can really strongly bring," he said.
"A lot of the [ACT government] people I know well, so without sounding too negative I think that cooperation has disappeared and we can certainly reinvigorate that.
"When I was last in [politics], we worked together well on upgrade projects such as the Lanyon Drive duplication and the Kings Highway shared between NSW and the ACT."
Racked by scandal and factional infighting after 16 years in power, NSW Labor suffered a landslide defeat in the 2011 election, the largest swing against a sitting government in the state since World War II. Since then, it has been a hard road for Labor to win back voter confidence.
For the first time in 12 years, the polls are detecting an electoral mood for change - a point on which Labor leader Chris Minns is campaigning heavily.
And while the pundits predict the key swing seats mostly will be in western Sydney, Mr Whan believes Monaro will also be in that mix.
"I'm feeling it [Monaro] is going to be a very tight race," he said.
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