“Instead of doing them all by hand I'm making a press so I can knock them out quicker,” Hepburn blacksmith John Madigan says as he hammers away at pieces of metal, fashioning a device to make hooks to hang sheep. Conversation is regularly interrupted by the sound of welders and angle grinders, as the 50-year-old’s attention flickers between the task at hand and the state of the nation. Upon meeting Madigan it’s clear he’s a long way from the archetype politician; indeed, he’s one of the few tradesmen to have held a seat in modern parliament. Yet just three months ago, the humble figure was a key cog in Australia’s most contentious senate crossbench.
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In a trade as old fashioned as blacksmithing, it’s unsurprising Madigan stuck with his family tradition within the Democratic Labour Party, a movement which all-but died out following the party’s obliteration at the 1974 election. While the blue collar, protectionist party had flickered in and out of state parliaments following the election of the Malcolm Fraser government, Madigan’s ascent to the senate with less-than three per cent of first preference votes at the 2010 election represented the DLP’s first return to the main game in almost four decades.
Despite the gradual demise of the B.A. Santamaria-inspired brand of politics made famous by the DLP, Madigan arrived in Canberra singing from a very familiar songsheet, albeit in a vastly different political climate. Amidst the colour and outrage of the newly-formed minority Labor government which itself had just scraped through with support from independents, Madigan’s brand of old fashioned manufacturing advocacy flew well under the radar of the press.
“I always had an interest in politics and the way it affects people and the decisions that are made, because it has far reaching implications,” Madigan says, pausing again to fire up the welder.
“We often hear about becoming a service industry economy, but servicing what? If you're just going to be a country where you dig holes in the ground you're not going to value add, and not everybody is going to be a solicitor, and God help us if we all were.”
Symbolic of Madigan’s cause was the demise of Blue Scope Steel in the same week the fresh-faced senator was due to give his maiden speech to parliament. Amid the quips about his party’s return from the dead was a solemn commitment to put Australian jobs first, even if at the cost of a free market mantra which he described as more of a “ski slope” than a level playing field.
The softly-spoken blacksmith soon found common ground with fellow crossbench senator and Australian manufacturing champion Nick Xenephon.
Although not cut from the same cloth in a social policy sense, the pair would regularly join together during their six years in the senate to advance a somewhat unfashionable cause.
In 2015 the pair drafted a bill attempting to force the government to consider local jobs as well as price when procuring goods and services for government investments. The duo were also crucial voices in pushing for an inquiry into political donations, which was eventually picked up by Labor.
“I actually miss the guy,” Senator Xenephon said of his former upper-house colleague. “He was fair dinkum, he was passionate, and he actually helped nudge government to a better direction on manufacturing." Despite the pair's best efforts, the manufacturing industry would continue to struggle during their tenure together, with major automotive employers Ford, Holden and Toyota all announcing imminent closures for 2016 and 2017.
While the senate was never far from the headlines from the day Madigan arrived in 2011, the celebrity of the position would be magnified in 2013 when the balance of power fell into the lap of an expanded crossbench. A flurry of anti-politicians ranging from the short-lived Palmer United Party block to the fiercely libertarian David Leyonhjelm and the unlikely every-man Ricky Muir flooded the upper house.
While no longer sporting the Canberra suit, the tradesman's tendency to punctuate conversation with mission statements is reminiscent of his former profession. Rural issues like the Murray Darling Basin legislation, where Madigan was one of two abstaining senators, sit atop his concerns with the voting patterns of major party politicians.
"Often I'd sit there and listen to a speech from (a major party) senator in the chamber, and you'd think from their speech they were going to vote against the particular piece of legislation being debated, but when it came time for the vote they'd vote for it," a bewildered Madigan said. Indeed, the poison of party politics would eventually drive the senator to leave the DLP in September 2014, blaming a “cancer of political intrigue” for diverting the party’s attention from its original goals. “If you haven’t got integrity, you’ve got nothing.”
It’s here where Madigan’s ethos as an independent comes to the fore most clearly. In a political environment where both major parties would jostle for the support of the crossbench, Madigan found it was often his independent colleagues whom he could most rely on.
"As much as we may disagree on some things, I’ll say one thing for (Muir): He never lied to me and he never tried to mislead me," Madigan said. "That's why in spite of differences we may have on some things, I respect Ricky Muir, because he stuck to his word and acted with integrity.” Madigan declined to offer names of senate colleagues he didn't regard as highly.
Of course, Madigan himself was certainly not immune from controversy, despite maintaining a lower profile than some of his more outspoken peers. A staunchly conservative Catholic, Madigan’s opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage remained steadfast throughout his time in Canberra, regularly arguing the criticisms levelled at supporters of traditional marriage amounted to religious vilification.
Madigan also drew the ire of the science community for his views on climate change, which led him to invite famous skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton to speak in Ballarat twice. His distaste for wind turbines proved equally polarising, with the Victorian senator chairing a senate committee which investigated alleged illnesses which were suffered by residents living near turbines. Supporters of renewable energy such as National Wind Alliance coordinator Andrew Bray described the committee’s final report as “laughable”. When speaking on the environment, Madigan makes his priorities clear. “Yes we need to be good custodians of the environment for future generations, but if we're not saving the environment for people, then what are we saving it for?”
Looking back on his time in the sun, Madigan continues to resent the power of money in modern politics, particularly in the role it plays in shutting out genuine independents. Under the new banner of John Madigan's Manufacturing and Farming Party and without the support of a recognisable brand or funding stream, Madigan failed to make any impact at the 2016 election, earning less-than 0.2 per cent of the vote. “you may have a very decent person who may not be very comfortable with one of the major parties, or one of the minor parties, but unless they've got an enormous amount of money, the chances of them being elected and making a contribution are pretty slim.”
Since disbanding his namesake party Madigan has joined the Australian Country Party, formerly the Country Alliance. While unwilling to say whether he will have another tilt at either federal or state politics, he does concede he believes he has more to give. Just weeks ago manufacturer Timken Bearings announced it would be relocating around 40 jobs from Ballarat to Melbourne, and it’s fights like these which seem to lure Madigan back to the game. “It's a blow that Timken have decided to pull up stumps in Ballarat, but we've got to look at how we can create meaningful, worthwhile employment for those people,” he says with intent. “The cumulative effect (of losing manufacturing) is there's less opportunities for people, especially for young people to do apprenticeships which is a good basis to go on and do other things in life.”