Revitalised Giulia Jones throws hat in ring for Liberal Senate ticket

Former MLA and cancer survivor Giulia Jones will be among three certain nominations for the Liberal Party Senate ticket as the party battles to retake the seat from independent Senator David Pocock at the next federal election due in 2025.

Nominations close tomorrow, and at this stage, other candidates include Jacob Vadakkedathu, a former candidate for the Legislative Assembly, and Kacey Lam-Evans, who was Zed Seselja’s running mate in the disastrous 2022 campaign.

It is believed that Dr Jerry Nockles, the unsuccessful Liberal candidate in Eden-Monaro in 2022, was considering a run, but that would mean pulling out of the ACT election, where he was preselected for the central seat of Kurrajong.

Mrs Jones has the highest profile of the three, having been a long-time MLA and Opposition frontbencher. She is currently CEO of PainAustralia.

Last year, the mother of six was diagnosed with breast cancer but is now in remission, finished all of her active treatment and is “loving life”.

She told Region that she was as healthy now as she had ever been.

But why go back into the unforgiving world of politics, particularly at the federal level?

“I realise life can be short, do what you love, and politics is my first love from a career perspective,” Mrs Jones said.

Mrs Jones said the party needed to regain the Senate seat so it could again represent Canberrans in Parliament, and she believed she was the best-equipped person to do that, particularly as a woman candidate.

She said Senator Pocock was a nice fellow, but his voting record would disappoint voters whose interests were not on the left side of politics.

“If people want a representative from the right, they need to vote Liberal, and I want to give them a really reasonable option to do that,” she said.

“We have a government that’s on the left, and to hold government to account you need people on the other side. If there is a change of government, you’ll want representation in the government.

“It’s about balance and the different opinions in our city being represented in a broad way.”

Mrs Jones rejected the view that Senator Pocock had solidified his position and that the electorate had shifted to the left, making it even harder for the Liberals to regain the seat.

She said the party’s base vote in Canberra was stable and that a positive person with a good public profile and respect in the community stood a really good chance.

Positive community feedback and 100 per cent backing from her husband encouraged her decision to nominate and gave her confidence that she could win back the seat.

“People know me. They know I’m very real, that I’m very up front, that I’m a mum who knows what it’s like to try to afford to live in Canberra, that I value traditional values and family in a big way, and I think that resonates with a group of people in the community,” Mrs Jones said.

She believed a woman candidate also stood a stronger chance of winning the seat, saying the Liberal Party needed to back more women in politics.

“I believe there are voters in Canberra who are passionate about women representatives and that will benefit us at the ballot box,” Mrs Jones said.

She understood why many people believed the party had a woman problem.

“I’ve worked in that building, the Federal Parliament, and felt the same way,” Mrs Jones said.

“I’ve felt the sadness about the fact that we’re not further along in that debate. Women do bring something different to politics.

“I know at the Assembly, when we changed from less than 50 per cent to more than 50 per cent of shadow cabinet being women, it really changed the dynamic, and it was for the better.

“From the leadership of the Liberal Party all the way down, there has to be promotion of having more women preselected.”

Mrs Jones said she would campaign on the cost of living, housing and the geopolitical situation.

“How many of our decision-makers are focused on how much the groceries actually cost? How many of them live that day-to-day life I do?”

“It’s really important to me that we don’t forget people who are genuine good human beings living on low incomes who are trying to aspire to a decent life in this city.”

The Liberal Party will conduct its preselection ballot for the Senate ticket on 28 April.