MP's campervan trip shows road to politics FROM carefree campervanner to Canberra crusader: it was a holiday around Australia that inspired Liberal Luke Howarth, federal member for Petrie, to have a crack at politics. In his first speech to parliament on Wednesday, Mr Howarth said it wasn't until he travelled the nation with his wife and three boys in a campervan that he realised he could make a difference. "In WA as we headed north into cattle country, we saw for ourselves the devastation of the knee-jerk decision by the previous Labor government to ban live exports without any consultation," he said. Families' incomes were destroyed overnight. He said it was a similar story heading south from Darwin. We passed road trains, with huge signs written across the back, saying 'No carbon tax - call an election now'. It was at this point that I decided to run, and by winning, knew that I'd help the coalition win government. Having been a small business owner, Mr Howarth said he was appalled at the turnaround for businesses just three years after the Howard government left office. He was just as disappointed in what was happening to the nation's borders. "A strong border protection policy, the Pacific Solution that had proven to work, was overturned by Labor without any thought of the consequences," he said. Mr Howarth's Liberal colleague, Member for Barton Nickolas Varvaris, told the parliament he took a completely different road to federal politics. He said he'd been a councillor of the Kogarah City Council since 1999 and was elected mayor six years ago. In his maiden speech, Mr Varvaris revealed that his local region had just six Liberal councillors representing the community across all three levels of government when he first entered politics 14 years ago. "This has progressively shifted to two Liberal federal members, two Liberal state members, and 16 Liberal councillors," he said. This is a remarkable transformation for the liberal Party and is clearly linked to the local representatives acting on behalf of the diverse community.