The Bench: Vince Catania

At the tender age of 42, The Nationals’ Hon. Vince Catania MLC is closing in on 14 years in WA Parliament, while serving an electorate that covers more than 800,000 square kilometres and stretches from Steep Point (the most western part of WA) all the way to the state’s eastern border.

The Member for North West Central sat down with Purple’s Peter Klinger to discuss the countless hours he spends behind the wheel, the city-country divide and his 2009 defection from Labor to the Nationals.

Unfiltered, unguarded and sometimes unconventional, The Bench shows WA’s politicians as you’ve never seen them before.

From rock to a hard place

For most of his adult life, Vince Catania has either worked for politicians or as one himself. But were it not for the intervention of an injury, he might have progressed a career in a vastly different field.

On the road again…and again

Vince outlines a standard week of travel across his vast electorate – the time (and distances) involved in his driving routine have to be heard to be believed.

The art of defection

Vince discusses a controversial moment in his political career – when he quit Labor in 2009 and moved to The Nationals.

Knocking on doors – across 800,000km

Despite the overwhelming sheer size of his electorate, Vince Catania says the key to engaging with voters is a traditional approach: the one he learned from his father Nick, Tom Stephens and John Bowler.

Who is Vince Catania?

He’s a plantation-owning dad, kept on the go by his kids’ many sporting commitments and still inspired by his own father’s political career. But the full story is best told by him:

The country-city divide

Are the people of Perth really so different from their country cousins? Vince Catania thinks not but acknowledges that there’s a gap there that has proved hard to bridge.

Word association challenge

Vince Catania takes on our infamous, rapid-fire test and has the NBN is in his sights.

Life with (and without) the Libs

Vince Catania reflects on the past and future of a Nationals alliance with the Liberal Party in WA…and why he believes the Nats won’t ever govern the state in partnership with Labor.