Meet Daniel McGlone, Labor candidate for Ripon

The Labor candidate for Ripon, Mr McGlone previously worked in the office of former Victorian Deputy-Premier Rob Hulls, seeing first hand a commitment to the community.

"I was always inspired by Rob's get up and go, nothing phased him, he was always churning out the projects and the sheer energy of the place was very exciting," he said.

"He was genuinely generous with his ideas and he really wanted to see good things happen in the community because he believed he had this duty to the community, it was quite refreshing."

Mr McGlone has acted as a barrister across regional areas, taking up a similar campaign to his predecessor Joe Helper by focusing on people across the electorate.

"I have been a fairly dogged, stubborn advocate for people who are disenfranchised," he said.

"I think country seats are often disenfranchised down on Spring Street, I take each of my clients very seriously and I stand by them regardless and that is exactly what I would be doing if I was elected.

"I see it as a personal commitment to the seat and the people in it."

Mr McGlone lives on the western side of Ballarat with his wife and two children.

He admitted to being excited in the lead up to the election and said he had been taking advantage of Mr Helper's knowledge across the large electorate.

"I am excited, because it is one of those times that you can feel confident that Labor will make a real difference," he said.

"The Labor Party seems to be very focused on the community, very focused on broad based support for everybody."

The electorate of Ripon includes a wide variety of large regional towns and covers a big area, meaning it can be quite diverse, according to Mr McGlone.

"They are all very, very different but they do share many things, small communities are often tightly bound together and they understand they can be quite isolated and they rely on infrastructure to maintain the connection to the wider community and so many of their logistical problems are similar."

Q&A

How should we make our community safer?

That is difficult because you can't just simply say 'make it safer' because the simple thing is we will have more police up front, that is an important thing. But it is also identifying problems.

Go Goldfields here in Maryborough, the (Central) Goldfields Council has got this project where they are looking at trying to improve people's literacy and their engagement with the community. When you see the community is actually part of the problem, that we are all part of the problem so therefore we can all be part of the solution.

People become at odds with each other and that can lead to crime.

But if you can short circuit that by involving people back into the community I think that is a good way of making people safe because they recognise the people they thought were marginal as people of their community and no longer frightening.

What impact, positive or negative, will the Ballarat West Employment Zone have on Ripon?

The Ballarat West Employment Zone sounds like a great idea and it is good to have the infrastructure building there so that business can come in but firstly you have got to have the business commitment to go there. You don't want short term business investment that ends up leading to something of a white elephant.

A sort of a flash in the pan just before a federal election, it looks like we got a commitment to regional Victoria when there are outlying infrastructure issues such as the roads, rail, getting people to and from work. You could say 'ok you have an industrial zone in the west'. Well maybe some people from Creswick would like to come in, well, what about the bus services? Well if the bus services are not really adequate to get in, your employment or industrial zone hasn't really improved employment and your sort of big ticket item starts looking a bit thin as the years go along.

What action should be taken on climate change?

Well the Labor Party has had a strong commitment towards climate change over the years and I think that is something that has to remain up at the forefront of any kind of policy development in environmental issues, agricultural issues and with renewable energy.

I think that one has to keep on looking into the issue and looking at other responses, I mean we know in the country that it is a problem that people on the land have experienced extreme weather conditions which have been detrimental to their productivity.

Do you think same-sex marriage should be legal?

Well, same-sex marriage is obviously a federal issue which is outside of my control. I certainly think laws need to be addressed to ensure that same-sex couples have the same access to any other long term couple to pensions, supports and the like and I think any artificial barriers to that are wrong.

Do you think abortion should be legal and available to all women?

Well abortion is legal and available to all women and I think it has been legal and available for over 40 years and I certainly am not proposing a change there.

What is the biggest infrastructure priority for Ballarat?

Rail is often the biggest one. The way that rail service seems to have been a bit of a psychological change in the landscape of Maryborough. When you connect local communities to rail you re-engage those communities with the wider state and a kind of confidence creeps back into the community and you can see that here in Maryborough, when you contrast to what it was like prior to the rail being re-connected.

Should tomato sauce be free with a meat pie?

I know this is a bit of heresy but I prefer my meat pie without tomato sauce so I suppose I don't have a sufficient personal investment to answer that question.

The Beatles or Rolling Stones?

Rolling Stones.

What's your favourite TV show?

I am sort of one these guys that gets the HBO series and chuck them all on in one go and watch them all the way to the end but being a criminal lawyer I was a big fan for Rake.

What's your favourite meal?

A good roo in a pub.