The only Labor politician to win a seat in that election, defeating the incumbent LNP member Michael Ronaldson, she has been re-elected every poll since, and increased her margin at the 2019 election despite the Morrison government being returned.

King has thus spent the greatest part of her career in parliament on the Opposition benches; while in government she has been Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories, Minister for Road Safety, and Minister for Regional Australia, Local Government and Territories.

Nevertheless, King says, in her time as a government member and minister, she is proud of what she has achieved for her electorate. Catherine King spoke at length to The Courier.

We're just over two weeks from the federal election; the polls, insofar as polls can be trusted two weeks out, are running in your favour. What can you point to in Ballarat and say, 'This is what I've achieved for the people of Ballarat as a member of parliament'?

The first time I was elected, I came into office in opposition. I had time to learn how to be a member of parliament and it does take time to learn how things work, how to use your influence and what you can do. And it was terrific when we were in government. I saw what we could do and the power of government.

I look around Ballarat and I look at what we did: when did we last see big, life-changing infrastructure in Ballarat? It was under a Labor government when we built the (Ballarat Regional Integrated) Cancer Centre.

It's not often you get to be involved in projects which literally change people's lives. But the fact was we had people having to travel long distances to cancer treatment because you could not access services here in Ballarat. Now we've got a state of the art Cancer Centre. Health professionals have come from Melbourne to live in Ballarat, to work, to provide that quality of care.

The dental clinic at Sebastopol: again, a Labor legacy. The community hub; the engineering building at the university, training the next generation of engineers out in the workforce. All of those things are good. It is frustrating being in opposition, because all you've got is the power of your voice. Unfortunately, the Morrison government has completely neglected this area, which is why we need a Labor government to fix it.

Look around you. Seriously, all of the big scale developments are Labor legacies, they are all investments from Labor. The soccer facility. When we were running out of water: $90 million to build a pipeline to secure our water supply. Lucas today is built off the back of a $2 million investment the Labor government made to council to bring forward all of the planning work in order for the estate to happen.

What you're seeing is a Labor legacy in the landscape. Frankly, the one project we've had from the Liberals in the last 10 years has been the basketball stadium, which is terrific. But it only happened because we made a promise in the 2013 election and the Libs matched it. We've had nothing since, other than a few small bits and pieces every other community has had.

Let's assume you win government. You've currently got the shadow portfolio of infrastructure, which is massive, important, and massively important here. What do you see as important projects for Ballarat? The hospital needs redeveloping constantly and there's an argument about whether it should be here or a new hospital in the west.

On the hospital, one of the things I've said about the urgent care clinic, my preference... is it would go out to Lucas or Winter Valley because we absolutely need to have more complex health services available for people in those communities, to take pressure off our emergency department.

In terms of broader infrastructure, I'm delighted both the Committee for Ballarat and the City Council are on the same page when it comes to the legacy pieces needed for this community. Things like the legacy issues from the Commonwealth Games will be critical. The state government, I assume, will ask for partnerships in relation to the Commonwealth Games in the regional centres, and I as a minister would of course have to be careful about conflicts of interest.

But my view is one of the legacies we need from the Commonwealth Games are social assets. We shouldn't be building temporary athletes' villages or temporary housing. There must be housing that can be a social asset afterwards; good suburbs, good neighborhoods for people to live and work in. That's an issue for me.

In terms of road and rail infrastructure, there are obviously significant improvements always needed. It's a small thing, but we announced $250 million to top up the local community roads infrastructure program, to help with some of the road resurfacing and potholes all over our community. They are everywhere. The roads are terrible, particularly in regions. Every council across the country will get a component, directed specifically at roads, and so Ballarat will get it as well.

With the link road - the state government in their budget recently have put in money for planning work. I would imagine then the state government will come to the federal government to ask for 50-50 funding to do this particular project. They have not done that as yet, but the fact they allocated money for planning work is a good sign it will eventually get done. And it's clear that it needs to be done, because of the growing population.

In terms of broader issues, I think for me it's about liveability for people. Whether our supporting infrastructure is up to scratch; whether our arts and community services are supported. The arts have really taken quite a knock (during the COVID pandemic) and there are some really good things being done there.

I'm delighted to see the state government has put money into the Ballarat Foundation's building to provide a hub for charitable organisations to grow and develop. There's things like that, which I think we can partner with the state governments.

Increasingly, there's a divide in Australia between those who have money and those who don't, and the divide is widening. Wages are going backwards, while the cost of property ownership has gone up (in some cases) fivefold in 10 years. If Labor government is elected, what can you offer? What can you do about it?

We have growing inequality in this country and wages have been stagnating. Inflationary pressures aren't new - petrol prices, housing prices, the cost of goods and services - have been going up for a long time. You need to have a government that cares about these things, and actually cares about poverty, cares about having decent services for people, and actually tries to do something about it.

That's the first thing: you need to care about it. I don't see any evidence the Morrison government actually does. The fact they say things like 'having suppressed wages is part of their economic strategy' - (former finance minister Mathias) Corman said that some time ago.

Trying to tackle some of the cost of living questions for people: childcare is actually really important. It's important, not just because it's about providing childcare for people, it's actually about the economic participation of women in the workforce, of parents in the workforce.

In terms of housing: partnering with state governments. The Victorian State Government's Big Build is actually a really significant investment in the building of affordable housing and social housing in this community. Labor's $10 billion affordable housing fund, the construction of affordable housing, is really critical.

The home equity policy we announced recently is targeted at people on the lower income end of the spectrum, to get them into housing in the first place, as well as building more social and affordable housing. We know home ownership does offer a pathway for people out of poverty and it's an intergenerational way of transferring wealth as well.

The cost of health is one of the number-one issues I get through my office . People ask, 'Why am I having to pay so much for a doctor'; 'why have medicine (prices) gone up'; 'I can't get an MRI' or 'it's costing me this amount of money...' So (the announcement of the) urgent care centre here in Ballarat is important; and we've announced discounts on medicines, a $12.50 cut on the maximum PBS price, so it will be $30 and not $42.50.

Acting responsibly with monetary policy and trying to take some of those inflationary pressures out of the system: the economic plan Jim Chalmers laid out so well at the National Press Club is all about how you spend money as a government; about quality spending on services, not necessarily splashing cash in a way that the (current) government does.

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