I’m a dad of four and I’ve lived in Lynbrook for more than 20 years. This is where my family has grown up and where I’ve spent a big part of my life helping build the community around us.

I’ve been involved with the Lynbrook Residents Association for many years, including as President, and much of that involvement has been about something pretty simple: bringing people together.

Community events, activities, local projects and the countless little things that help turn a collection of houses into an actual community have always mattered to me.

I’ve also been prepared to fight when I thought our community needed someone to stand up for it.

The long battle over the proposed Hampton Park Waste Transfer Station was probably the clearest example. It involved years of meetings, research, questions, submissions and persistence from people across the community. Eventually the proposal was stopped.

That experience also left me asking a bigger question.

How did something that caused so much community concern get so far in the first place?

That question is part of what eventually led me here. I didn’t suddenly become interested in Narre Warren South because I decided to stand for Parliament. This has been my home for more than 20 years.

My working life has been pretty varied as well.

I served with Victoria Police during the 1990s, including working with young people through the Police in Schools program. I later worked in human services, including drug and alcohol policy and service delivery, with responsibility for a significant government program budget.

I’ve worked in local government, spent years organising major events, worked with community and charity organisations and, these days, I also know firsthand what it is like trying to make a small business work.

None of that was part of some grand plan to become a politician, but it has given me a fairly broad view of government, community and everyday life.

I’ve seen government from the inside and worked with communities from the outside. I’ve managed public money, dealt with bureaucracy, worked with people in difficult circumstances, built events from the ground up and watched what happens when systems work well and when they clearly don’t.

None of that makes me an expert in everything. I don’t pretend to be.

It has taught me to ask questions, look at the evidence, listen to people who know more than I do and be prepared to change my mind when the evidence says I should.

I also don’t believe good ideas belong to one side of politics.

Labor can have a good idea. The Liberals can have a good idea. The Greens and minor parties can have good ideas too. And every one of them can get things wrong. I’m much more interested in the idea than the badge attached to it.

The question I want the freedom to ask is:

What is the right thing to do for the people I represent?

And increasingly, I think governments need to ask another:

Is this the right decision for Victoria’s future, or simply the decision most likely to keep us popular until the next election?