10 Years in Parliament

"Viewpoint" column - 6 October 1998

On October 1^st, I and several colleagues marked the 10^th anniversary of our election to the Victorian Parliament in 1988.

Over the past 10 years, I have often been asked what life in politics is like.

For the first few years after entering Parliament, I wondered how much had changed from my former job as a commercial lawyer. Those were the days of VEDC and VIC, State Bank, Pyramid and Tricontinental, and I seemed to spend as much time looking at company records as I ever did before.

Being in Opposition is relatively easy - your main job is to complain about what a rotten job the Government is doing. In Government, you actually have to deliver.

Since the change of government in 1992, I have had the pleasure of working as Alan Stockdale’s Parliamentary Secretary - first in Treasury, and then, when he became the world’s first Minister for Multimedia in 1996, in Multimedia as well.

The first days in office were frantic - a budget to prepare in only a few weeks, difficult decisions on revenue measures and spending reductions.

After that have come the challenges of reforming the State’s financial structures and business enterprises, and helping Victorians use our traditional Australian innovative and inventive spirit to strive to become a leading participant in the world’s multimedia and information technology industries.

However, it has been satisfying to see the benefits of those changes emerging not only with the resurgence of the Victorian economy, major construction projects and growing exports, but also at a local level with refurbishment and upgrades to schools, continued improvements at our hospital and a growing and successful TAFE college.

Politics can be demanding and the hours are long and irregular, but there is enormous variety and the opportunity to achieve results. It is a continuing honour to have been elected to serve.

Robert Clark.