'Heart and soul': Melinda Pavey on what she'll miss most as Oxley MP

With just days left as the Member for Oxley, she knows seeing and chatting to any of her soon to be former constituents will bring on the tears.

Instead, we chat in her office; where the walls are lined with photos.

Some are with family, some are with the National Party's grassroots supporters; but many are prominent members of the Oxley community.

It was the members of the community that Mrs Pavey credits as to why she loved her job so much.

"Just seeing the decency of so many members of the community, whether they were teachers wanting better outcomes for their students, whether it was small business people... retirees wanting a safer life in their community, [and] talking to firefighters that actually felt not listened to in terms of hazard reduction and giving them a voice," she said

"As a minister for five years, as well as being this local member, my departmental secretaries were always very respectful of the challenges that I put through to them because I was putting the challenges of my constituents to them."

One incident she recalls is having to write a statutory declaration for social housing in South Kempsey, near the Macleay Vocational College, because the department presumed she knew the developer.

She did not.

"The whole state, I fought for everyday," she said.

She reaches for a box of tissues.

"And I was good at it."

Mrs Pavey began her journey in the National party as a media officer for former Coffs Harbor MP and Minister for Administrative Services Matt Singleton in 1988.

Over the years she has worked for Deputy Premier Wal Murray, Ministers for Consumer Affairs Wendy Machin and National Party leader Ian Armstrong.

In 2002 she was successfully sworn into the upper house and in the 2015 state election she won the seat of Oxley.

It was a position that she successfully held onto in the 2019 State Election.

Being one of the NSW National Party's youngest members of parliament when she joined the party at 33 years old, and being one of the few women in parliament hasn't been easy, Mrs Pavey said.

There were times for her when being a woman in parliament was hard.

"Because of the mates, the friendships and the bonding at the pubs late at night," she said.

"The girls weren't part of that."

When Mrs Pavey first joined the Nationals Party, the only female party member in the NSW Parliament was Wendy Machin.

During her time as Member for Oxley, however, she recalls at one point when all the mayors and state representatives for the Mid North Coast region, apart from Coffs Harbour, were all women.

In 2021, she ran in the NSW Nationals leadership contest, but lost to Paul Toole.

Had she been successful, she would have been the first female leader of the NSW Nationals Party.

At the time of publishing, only five of the 12 NSW National Party members of parliament are women.

"I think if there is a criticism of my career, it is that the first time I put my hand up and got into the upper house, it was too easy," she said.

"Because I had the support of two former deputy premiers... I didn't know what others might do to reach the dizzying heights of being a member of parliament.

"I was naive and I was naive for too long."

That naivety soon faded once the National Party came into power in 2011.

"In opposition, you do need to be more team-like," she said.

"Then, in government, I saw the naked ambition of some around me."

As one of the National Party's longest serving members of parliament, Mrs Pavey has served many different roles in her time.

She was sworn in as Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight in 2017 and in 2019, she was appointed the role of Minister for Water, Property and Housing.

In that time there have been many career highs and lows.

Mrs Pavey said she is proud of her involvement in the development of the Pacific Highway and the lives saved as a result.

"That was something many people worked a lot of years on and I was part of that journey," she said.

"Andrew Stoner really deserves a lot of credit for that."

Other highlights include the new hospital in Macksville, the redevelopment of Kempsey District Hospital, and achieving a billion dollar commitment for improving roads with works currently still taking place to replace timber bridges and seal roads throughout the Oxley electorate.

But with the achievements have come challenges in the form of floods, fires and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The past four years have been very traumatic for the community and therefore it's traumatic for the MP," she said.

She recalls visiting London on a delegation with her water portfolio when the 2019 bushfires started.

She cut the visit short to come home as soon as possible.

"I find the fires frustrating because I don't think we really are getting to the essence of better land management," she said.

"We need to somehow have better conversations between our Indigenous mobs, our farmers, and our environmental activists because we've changed the landscape."

Mrs Pavey said there are still issues she wanted to work on, including using crown land for housing.

She had wanted to restore old cabins in Urunga, but when a department expression of interest deemed them as not commercially viable, this didn't come to fruition.

"Even as minister you have your losses," she said.

"Sometimes you can have the fight, but you just lose."

Another idea she had wanted to enact was working with land councils to use their land to create housing and economic opportunities.

One of her biggest regrets however is not redeveloping West Kempsey housing.

"There's so much broken here and that's what upsets me," she said.

"Too many people have pain and trauma that has a really profound impact on life and it's really clear to see.

"I hope governments, and I will be agitating where I can, encourage mentors and leadership within a community to help raise kids."

Following Dominic Perrottet's appointment as the NSW Premier in 2021, Mrs Pavey was one of the three ministers who lost their ministerial portfolios in a cabinet reshuffle.

In August 2022, Mrs Pavey announced she would not be contesting the Oxley seat in the 2023 State Election.

"[Nambucca Valley Council Mayor Rhonda Hoban] was probably the one that nearly convinced me to go around again, but I just figured I've got to do some stuff for me," Mrs Pavey said.

It would be incorrect to say that Mrs Pavey hasn't garnered community support over the years and it showed in the interview.

Halfway through the conversation, a delivery of flowers arrived from a community group for the local MP.

When taking photos outside, a member of the public came up to speak to Mrs Pavey.

"You look lovely," the woman told her.

"I don't feel it on the inside," Mrs Pavey replied.

Mrs Pavey said the hardest part for her was telling Nationals grassroot members that she wasn't going to run again.

"They're just common, decent people that work in our community," she said.

Leaving Oxley, there's still a lot she wants to see completed and maintained by her successor.

Some of the issues she would like to see made a focus are housing, welfare and the health system, especially developing a better health precinct at the Bellingen and Wauchope hospitals.

"We've got to do more with housing and be creative whether it's land councils and crown land," she said.

"I know I can still help behind the scenes."

The long serving MP doesn't know what's next for her just yet.

She's exploring all opportunities but doesn't have any plans to move away.

"I might still have to travel, but my heart and soul is in the Mid North Coast," she said.

Mrs Pavey said that she was excited for the future.

"I think I'm emotional about formally leaving, but I won't be leaving the community or the Mid North Coast."

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