Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards wants to continue to deliver for electorate

Four-month-old Beto is named after North American Democrat Beto O'Rourke, who ran in the Texas gubernatorial race this month and lost.

The long-time local member for Bendigo West loves politics.

As well as her enjoyment of people and organisations and her "passion to deliver" for the electorate, there is another side of her job she relishes.

In August she was elected Speaker of the Victorian parliament - the umpire of proceedings in the lower house - only the fourth woman to have ever held the role.

Before that she served two four-year terms as deputy speaker.

"When you have the confidence of the house, you're elected, and both sides endorse you for those positions, then it is an honour and a real privilege," she says.

She is also proud of her work as chair of the former Family and Community Development Committee, which between 2014 and 2018 handed down reports into disability, autism and perinatal services which have had a significant impact on government policy since, she says.

Before being elected in 2010 the mother of four spent 11 years as electoral officer to the former member for Bendigo West, Bob Cameron, a role that gave her "a really good understanding of what's happening in the electorate".

When the opportunity to run for the seat arose, she "jumped at it", but after being elected spent four "frustrating" years in opposition.

When Labor won government in 2014, "it was like a light switch had been turned on."

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"It was a huge opportunity to deliver some of the projects and services and infrastructure that I knew was desperately needed, particularly in Mt Alexander Shire, which I had felt had been neglected quite significantly."

The MP reels off a list of initiatives she has helped deliver since, ranging from new and upgraded schools and kindergartens around the electorate to "wonderful but simple things" like a community bus service between Mt Alexander shire and Kangaroo Flat.

They include art and community space developments, streetscape upgrades, powerline undergrounding, roadworks, and the creation of a mountain bike path.

"If you think about Bendigo you can see the big spends because they're changing the shape of our CBD," she says, citing the new courthouse, GovHub, TAFE upgrades, hospital and the rehab center underway at the old hospital site.

Ms Edwards says the Labor government has been good at ensuring "a pipeline of investment in infrastructure" for the region but denies any of it has been unwarranted.

"Every single one of those projects has been done through community consultation and engagement with people who have told us what it is they want delivered for their communities."

Looking back over her time in the job, she cites the two-year period following the onset of COVID-19 as one of the biggest challenges, and also achievements.

She and her staff worked without stopping, she says, to provide business, manufacturing, family and individual support to "people who who were desperate to find out how they could get help".

"They were the busiest couple of years that I can ever recall."

On the handling of health restrictions, the Labor MP agrees "there might have been some anguish" in the community.

"But the reality was, we had to do that based on the health advice until people were vaccinated."

"And once the federal government...finally, after much delay, ordered the vaccines, we got double dose vaccination in Bendigo west of 97 per cent and were able to open up."

There is a long list of election commitments - from $6 million to fund the development of an industrial site at Marong and $4.1 million to upgrade Camp Hill Primary School to a series of $50,000-$100,000 grants for community groups - to deliver if Ms Edwards is re-elected.

There are also "lots of great ideas" for future initiatives.

"If I win, my December calendar is already chockers with proposed meetings about a whole range of things," she says.

Given she attracted a first preference vote of 53.48 per cent in 2018, and has no serious challengers, those meetings are highly likely to go ahead.

Unlike her new dog's namesake, Ms Edwards looks set to continue her political career with a victory next Saturday.

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