workforce
they’re getting in their parliaments. I’m
standing because I’m one of those people
who are dissatisfied.
I’ve seen that there’s a better way of doing
politics, and that better way is being led
by a community group here in the federal
electorate of Indi, where I live: the Voices
for Indi. This group worked closely with
[current Indi MP] Cathy McGowan and saw
her elected to parliament in 2013. Cathy’s
shown us a different way, and I want to
follow in that mould.
You’ve lived and worked in Indi for about
30 years. Where did you grow up?
A better way
Meet the indie nurse
running for Indi.
Helen Haines interviewed by Conor Burke
I
f nurse and independent candidate for
the Victorian federal seat of Indi, Helen
Haines, makes it to Canberra this year, we
can be sure she won’t fall foul of last year’s
most popular piece of the constitution:
Section 44. She recently resigned from her
role at the University of Melbourne to avoid
potential conflicts of interest.
This ended a 34-year career in health,
which started with nursing and midwifery
in rural Victoria, followed by a master’s and
PhD in Sweden, and finally the directorship
of the Rural Health Academic Network at
the University of Melbourne.
Her resignation was a “very difficult
decision and a painful one because I love
my work”, Haines says. “But if I can get
elected to sit in parliament, I will have many
opportunities to influence, at a policy level,
rural and public health.”
The child of dairy farmers in rural Victoria,
Haines got to where she is today the hard
way. Co-dux of her high school, the expense
32 agedcareinsite.com.au
of living away meant that going straight to
uni wasn’t an option.
“The costs were so prohibitive for a kid
from a dairy farm that I went with nursing
because we got paid to be nurses and
accommodation was cheap. And I have
never regretted that for a second. Nursing
was the greatest education a person could
have,” she says.
That tough rural start and years on the
wards set her up for life.
“It’s good training for life I tell you. People
ask me: ‘Why would you go into politics?
It’s a dirty business.’ But I haven’t had a
Rolls‑Royce ride through life … When you
live in a rural environment, you have to do a
lot of difficult things,” she says.
Aged Care Insite had the chance to talk
to Haines about nursing, aged care and her
political ambitions.
ACI: Given the way politics stands at the
moment, what could possibly compel
a person to stand for office?
HH: It is indeed an act of courage, but it’s
an act of courage based on a widespread
community concern that we are unhappy as
a nation. Indeed, across the world, citizens
are unhappy with the level of representation
I grew up on a dairy farm in southwest
Victoria, out on the Western Plains, with
my parents and four brothers. I spent my
childhood in rural Victoria, then went off
and did my education and training as a
nurse and midwife at St Vincent’s Hospital in
Melbourne and then at the Mercy Hospital
for Women. From there, I moved up to
northeast Victoria and worked as a nurse
and a midwife, and then over time went
into academia. But I spent all 30 years of my
post-initial education and training in rural
health up here in northeast Victoria.
You ended up in Sweden doing a PhD in
medical science and reproductive health.
How did that come about?
It was a classic case of seeking out
opportunity. When I was working as a
midwife here in Wangaratta, I was one of the
founding members of a new model of care
for providing continuity of midwifery care for
rural women. It was called the Wangaratta
Community Midwife Program. When I was
doing that program, it became clear to me
that midwives needed to play a bigger role
in public health, using their experience to
work with women around key public health
messages. So I decided to do a master’s in
public health and enrolled for that program
with the University of New South Wales.
I started reading widely. I came across
some excellent research from academic
midwives at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Being a curious person, I emailed the
authors of those papers and told them how
interested I was in their work, and I asked
how a person like me from a town like
Wangaratta could come and spend some
time with them to learn more. They invited
me to come across, and I spent six months
with them in the Department of Women’s
and Children’s Health at Uppsala University,
which is also a WHO Collaborating Centre
for international reproductive health. They
invited me to stay after I finished my master’s