LIVED EXPERIENCE

Chris always wanted to be a Jetpilot, but he hated maths. Then the September 11 terrorist attacks happened, and Chris was inspired to sign up to the Australian Army. On his initial recruiting interview they asked him what he wanted to do, to which he replied “Blow stuff up!” and so they told him they had just the job for him. He moved to Townsville with the 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment in 2003 after Basic Training at Kapooka in Wagga Wagga NSW, and learnt very quickly that his past life experiences to date- school and living at home until he was 20- didn’t teach him much in the way of life skills.

Chris grew up ‘on the mean streets of Surrey Hills’ an inner east Melbourne suburb. His parents were hardworking and down to earth, and whilst well cared for he wasn’t spoiled; but joining the Army unlocked a whole new world for him. It instantly opened his eyes to the fact that his life in leafy inner Melbourne had sheltered him from the real world. His fellow Engineers and those he’d met at Basic Training were mostly not from a city. They were from Rural and Regional Towns, usually where there were Military Bases, and they were cut from a different cloth. Not only in life skills but also in values and culture. He felt they were also more resilient and staunch, and got stuff done. He learnt a lot at an early age about the disparity between City and Regional Life and how that impacts well, everything!

Real life experience has a way of shaping character that you simply cannot buy, and the structure of the Army- the team environment, the requirement for committing to the way of life and the culture it engendered- began teaching him the life lessons he needed for the foundations of who he is today. He learned self discipline and humility through humbling experiences. He learned sometimes you need to be picked up and carried, and sometimes you are the one doing the carrying. He also learned that despite his previous feelings on the idea, you cannot do everything on your own. He mostly didn't appreciate those lessons at the time, but today recognises the value of them.

When Chris was posted to a Reserve unit as part of rotation, he commenced studying his Certificate 3 and 4 in fitness in preparation to leave the army. He was considering his next challenge in life, hence the study but he was instead offered a position as a Loadmaster (Door Gunner, Back of Aircraft, Hoisting, Safety, Load Rigging) working in the rear of Blackhawk helicopters, and after 9 months training in remote regional Qld at the School of Aviation, Oakey, in 2007 he moved to Holsworthy, NSW with the 171 Aviation Squadron.

Within 171, Chris now supported training and operations for Australia’s elite Special Units, the Commandos and SAS. It meant however that he had to raise his standard, as it was a pressure cooker environment and the culture and values were far more self disciplined and higher expectations compared to the rest of the Army. To achieve the outcomes required by Operational Command, the job demanded not only teamwork, but unwavering trust in your individual ability to do your job, and the role that your Unit played being tactically ‘Green or Black’. When deployed to Timor Leste twice as Timor Leste Aviation Group it was a ‘Green’ role, and he learnt to live in a third world country and see how lucky we are in Australia and learnt not to take things for granted. The pace was far slower overseas for him compared with the fast pace of 171 Avn Sqn. Delivering Food to cut off villages, Air Ambulance by night and monitoring road conditions with local government in the back were all jobs undertaken in his time there. Then whilst back in Aus with Tactical Assault Group East and West working in the Black Role, he had to commit to the continual elevation of skills and job demands and it was something Chris had never experienced before, which set the path for future career opportunities. If any one person made a mistake, then one of the Special Forces members would not get home to their family. Lives were on the line with every flight even just in training. Both Chris and his team members, and the Special Units they serviced had to believe that he was good enough at his job to trust him to keep them alive. In many instances the Pilots had to put literal blind faith in Chris to direct them due to actually losing sight of the landing spot. This crystallised the foundation of Chris’s ethics position on Personal Responsibility and Accountability, and was one of Chris’ great honours in life to work with the Pilots, and the Soldiers in the back. The Aviation world taught him about self assessment and answerability. Every person in this team self reported their mistakes, even when no one else had identified them. Chris still self-reports, a rare leadership trait not seen in Victorian Parliament often.

After 3 years with 171, and now nearly 30 years of age, in 2011 Chris was back in Australia, watching people pay to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge whilst he was living the dream job life. However, he began to find that this no longer rewarded him in the way it had previously. His friends back home were getting married and having kids, and still playing footy together on the weekend, and he wasn’t able to participate in this. Recognising that he’d begun to lose gratitude for the role, he knew it was time to move on, and so he transitioned out of the Army and into the Victorian Police.

The Army offered him promotions and extra money, but the 6 figure salary was not going to keep him from playing footy with the boys before he was too old to don the boots. It has never been about the money for Chris, evidenced by the 50% pay cut he took to move home.

As a result of the new recruit pay packet Chris now received, for affordability and to be closer to his parents, Chris chose to build a house in Lara. After moving there he learnt he really disliked the city and enjoyed the You Yangs, the beach and slower pace of Geelong and well also, the lack of drug and street crime. He’s lived in the Western Region of Victoria for over 7 years.

The transition wasn’t easy though, whilst excited to back on Victorian turf, with a new career and new challenges to evolve through, over 8 years in the Army left him feeling out of place. He missed the camaraderie of the Unit, and felt a loss of purpose. It’s something most Veterans experience and struggle with, and Chris is keenly aware that whilst his experience is different to others, it’s something that needs to be addressed openly.

Stationed to the inner Melbourne Hot Spot of Richmond in 2012, Drugs, Domestic and Family Violence, Violent Crime and being the front line facing the public, Metro Policing offered new experiences with the development of new skill sets in Diplomacy, Engaged Communication, and Critical Thinking.

Purpose found it’s way back to Chris via his interactions with the troubled kids of the beat surrounding Richmond Cop Shop. He’d noticed a pattern where no one was actually talking candidly to the affected youth caught up in the scene- that is the illicit drug scene including Heroin and Methamphetamine. The people he dealt with were often very remorseful and hated their behaviour, but once addicted were unable to get away and there was little to no support for these people or their families. These kids were mainly from ethnic or migrant backgrounds, and lower socio-economic groups. He witnessed the full spectrum that goes hand and hand with drug affected and addicted behaviour. Chris put his hand up to become a Youth Liaison Officer as he could offer these kids a pathway forward rather than enabling a victim mentality. He worked with the children in commissioned housing, taking them to camps in Toolangi. These camps created a safe environment for the kids to listen, to ask questions, give them a chance to be heard and discover what they needed. The youth were from various countries, and this was perhaps the first time an Adult had held honest and transparent conversations with them.

His time as a Police Officer also highlighted the level of police resources that are consumed by natural substances that are still considered illegal, and the extra pressure it put on an already strained emergency response. Combining this with the positive outcomes being recorded in Mental Health with Natural Substances, it showed Chris that it was time to consider alternatives in Health and Law Enforcement positioning, and is the lived experience behind his commitment to the decriminalisation of Natural Substances.

In 2014 Chris decided to move to a specialist unit being the ORU which is the Operations Response Unit, which was created as a result of the lack of officers available during the bushfires. Then completing the course to become a member of the Public Order Response Team (PORT). Organised Crime was on the rise in Melbourne, as were Protests, with PORT assisting with both Bikers and Crime family warrants. Chris wanted to have a direct impact on the things that matter to him. After two years at PORT, including one year in a Training role, a more tactical opportunity utilising the skills he’d learnt from Army and mastered at 171 became available and Chris was accepted into the Critical Incident Response Team or CIRT. CIRT was responsible for dealing with anything out of the realm of general duties policing, where the local uniform police didn’t have the capability to resolve the situation, including armed offenders and mental health emergencies. In this role Chris experienced high stress and rapidly evolving scenarios from people stabbing themselves, to sitting on the edge-top of high buildings and hostage situations. Yet fast Decision Making on the best information available under high stress, was something he was used to dealing with from his time with 171, and this only confirmed his competence.

Throughout his career, in pursuit of active service, Chris has side stepped promotion and wage increases to stay in the job, where he felt he could have the most impact, rather than behind a desk. He had the Leadership skills based on actual lived experience, but if he went up in Rank, he couldn’t do the job and that’s what he felt was most important.

It was this reason Chris moved into a part time Negotiator role as part of CIRT. More challenging than he expected, it taught him to listen even more attentively and empathise with the person on the other side of the door. Chris believes that you can find some common ground with anyone, despite the chaos that may have overtaken them. Chris sees this as a value skill set for politics, one he’s had lived experience and hindsight to perfect. As a Negotiator you deal with people in crisis, and given the last few years, more often than not, if a Constituent is reaching out to their Legislative Council Member, it’s due to crisis. Chris believes the government of the day has lost touch with the people they were designed to represent.

Furthermore, as a Cop, Chris witnessed first hand how the Media told the story they wanted to tell, and not necessarily anything remotely close to what had occurred. Chris witnessed firsthand as an Arresting Member, of Jonathon Dick. He was also there for the arrest of Richard Pusey, having to bang the door in to stop anyone losing their life. After multiple public arrests and how they were reported he realised both that Government and Media aren’t transparent and that neither seems to correct the other. Once over the initial shock of this, and how it impacts society, it has only strengthened Chris’s resolve to be transparent and honest in not only his dealings but his communication.

Working at CIRT with Negotiator Qualifications, “Upholding the Right” was not only the Police motto, but an honour of doing the job.

Chris was offered a full time Negotiator role, however declined as his ‘knees and back were still not broken completely’ and wanted to remain active in the tactical role. He’d also grown wary of politics forming a larger part of police decision making and thought he could be more benefit teaching the junior members to do their job safely back closer to home in Geelong. However, COVID restrictions were now in place the State of Victoria, and ultimately the Police Force was enforcing the State of Emergency requirement. The Government and Police Command position on this, and the impact to over 11 years - a career’s worth of Community Policing - left Chris and many other Force members disillusioned, conflicted, and unable to see a pathway forward. The damage to Police, Ambulance and Political Reputations either via direct implication or simple association to the Andrews Govt Covid Response, highly concerned Chris and he could simply not work in a job, where as a Police Officer he was now feared by the Public rather than seen as a beacon of hope, a Protector and a Problem Solver- who you call in your time of need. As such, Chris quit the Force to be able to run for Federal Senate for the State of Victoria. He gave up his career and with it his income, to Uphold the Right, handing back his badge and the irony is not lost on him. With only 4 weeks to campaign, and a very limited self funded budget, Chris connected with people the old fashioned and well most authentic way- face to face- and made some genuine connections across Victoria. For a first time unknown Candidate Chris did quite well, over 10,000 direct votes and around 583,000 in top six preference votes. Chris has been unemployed since April, living off his long service leave, to allow him to fully commit to the State Election.

Chris does not aspire to Politics naturally even though he had a keen interest in it, but he recognises that someone with credible experience needs to step up into the role and provide the Leadership so sorely lacking from the career politicians we see regularly. Chris will bring responsibility, respect and honour back to this position and really is the right choice for the people of Western Victoria. To learn more about what Chris stands for and what he values, you can click here.

After twenty years of serving the public with integrity and honour, Chris is excited to continue his service and work to help all the people of Western Victoria, including those who aren't able to stand up for themselves due to financial reasons or lack of confidence or skills. Chris is the Party President of the Angry Victorians Party, the State Branch of the Australian Values Party, bringing his incredible lived experience, emotional intelligence and dedication to service forward to represent his home Legislative Council Region of Western Victoria.

Chris is still trying to blow stuff up, this time it’s the status quo in Western Victoria and the Legislative Council. Will you help him?

WHY AVP?

Chris resonated with Heston’s values and positions on many things having originally been introduced via Veteran Circles. Heston stands up for those that get left behind or forgotten, and he believes in that, and often finds himself doing the same thing. He had investigated the Major Parties however there didn't seem to be a legitimate process for career progression without agendas. AVP was the only Minor Party that Chris felt he could truly align to and authentically promote the Policies of AVP holds true to his core beliefs, based on real life experiences, and therefore has the integrity to bring Accountability and Leadership back to Politics.