The Labor MP has held the seat since 2001 and has a 4.9 per cent margin on a two-party preferred basis. 

“I think that I still have a lot to offer and when you make a decision that you are committed to public life you want to have the opportunity to do that from government and I am very determined that I become part of a federal parliamentary Labor government,” she said 

“Elections have their own rhythms and pace to them and they are a great time but it is the work you have done in the months beforehand that really make the difference, people are pretty cynical if they just see you out during an election campaign.”

Ms King has been involved with the Labor Party since her early twenties. 

At the time she was working for Child and Family Services as a social worker.

“I joined the Labor Party largely because of the work I was doing here in Ballarat with young people, I could see there were opportunities being denied to many of the young people I worked with who were some of the poorest in our community,” she said

“There was a Labor government in power at the time and I was frustrated with some of the changes being made to social  security benefits, changes being made to job employment programs and I really felt for the young people I was working with. 

“I either thought you could sit on the sidelines and stand up for it that way, I thought change from within was better so I joined and got involved.”

Ms King singled out inequality as the single most important issue to her. 

“I think it is absolutely desperate to me that we are seeing growing inequality in our community and across the nation,” she said.  

“Inequality should matter to every single person in our community because we know the more inequality in our society, the less economic growth, the less opportunities people have to participate in the economy and social side of our community.

“If we don’t deal with that and we don’t have policies that actively deal with inequality as a country we will go backwards and as a region we not going to be able to provide opportunities for our kids into the future.”