Keogh adjusting to ‘Fifo’ lifestyle of being in Parliament

MATT Keogh has been adjusting to life as the newly elected member for Burt and his ‘Fifo lifestyle’ of being a Member of Parliament from WA.

Mr Keogh was elected to the Federal seat of Burt during the July 2 election.

In the two months since being elected, he said that he was adjusting to life, which was similar to working Fifo , having to travel to Canberra for Parliament.

“I am effectively a Fifo worker being an MP from WA,” he said.

“As a new dad it is another strain in my family.

“Obviously it’s different to flying over east then up north, but it gives you realisation of what many Fifo families are going through.”

Mr Keogh has been working on the mobile black spots in the Burt area as well as looking at infrastructure and the drugs and domestic violence issues since his election.

“To some extent the first two months is a transition from the hurley burly of the campaign into things like trying to set up an office and getting the IT systems to work and dealing with the bureaucracy around that,” he said.

“We’ve got some critical black spot areas throughout the Burt, where people are not able to get good mobile phone reception.

“Some people have no landline internet, no mobile reception and not are not in an NBN area.”

He said it would increasingly become an issue with things like Census and tax returns now being completed online.

Mr Keogh said drugs were an issue in the Gosnells and Armadale areas, as was domestic violence.

“The biggest crime in whole (Burt) seat is domestic violence,” he said.

“Part of that is driven by drug use for sure, there is definitely a link.

“We need better funding not just for rehab but for domestic violence and homeless services and legal services for domestic valence.”