QLD: One Nation MP on L Plates

AAP General News (Australia)
04-05-2001
QLD: One Nation MP on L Plates

By Ainsley Pavey

BRISBANE, April 5 AAP - One Nation MP Elisa Roberts is learning to drive in the parliamentary
fast lane after graduating from work-for-the-dole to a $92,000 a year job.

The 30-year-old former Sydneysider had to get a learner's permit to drive her taxpayer-funded
Commodore after her stunning upset victory in the former National Party stronghold of
Gympie in February's Queensland election.

But for the next six months the former soldier, whose earnings have skyrocketed from
almost nothing to more than $92,000-a-year, has to rely on her mother to transport her
to parliament house while she takes driving lessons.

"It's not too bad. I'm only 12 years behind most people who get their licence at 18,"

Ms Roberts said.

The University of New South Wales arts graduate is still coming to grips with her new
job after working for the dole in the Cooloola Regional Development Bureau for four months
before she snared the prized National seat held for 44 years.

"I read more in a day here than I did during my degree and that was a lot because I
did English literature as my major," she said.

"You're so busy you don't really have time to sit down and say 'this is what I'm doing'.

It will probably be three years before it hits me. You really work for it."

The One Nation MP, who uprooted and moved from her home in Bondi three years ago to
start anew in Queensland, jokes about being a "Bondi girl".

An only child with divorced parents, she joined her retired mother in the tiny inland
town of Amamoor, near Gympie, and convinced her father to leave Sydney to settle in the
area.

Full of youthful exuberance as the baby of the party's parliamentary trio which includes
leader Bill Flynn (Lockyer) and Rosa Lee Long (Tablelands), Miss Roberts has already asked
several questions in parliament.

But the reality of facing off against Labor's 66-seat majority is frustrating for her.

She invited Premier Peter Beattie and Health Minister Wendy Edmond to a forum at the
troubled Gympie hospital where doctors have resigned in protest over conditions.

"Surely they could spend a couple of hours in their day to reassure those Queenslanders,
that's disappointing," she said.

The red-headed crossbencher is preparing her maiden speech for the May sittings where
she aims to state her commitment to her electorate to work hard for the next three years.

She has gained a few tips from One Nation president Pauline Hanson since her first
day in parliament a few weeks ago.

One Nation has been the butt of Labor jokes after the post-1998 implosion in which
11 One Nation MPs split during the deregistration debacle.

But she said she was ready for whatever Labor dishes out.

"They have their jokes at One Nation but that's cool," she said. "I laugh.

"Pauline's around, we can ring her if we want help but we don't need our hands held."

AAP ap/sc/mg/sb

KEYWORD: NATION ROBERTS (WITH PIX)

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