Climate change, education and stadiums: how Coogee voted
As the sea breeze swept over the marginal seat of Coogee on Saturday, voters expressed their desires for a breath of fresh air.
In a desperate fight for the marginal coastal seat, it will take just a 2.9 per swing for 32-year-old Labor candidate Marjorie O’Neill to knock out the Liberal Party’s Bruce Notley-Smith, who has held the seat for eight years. If successful, she will be the first female member for the electorate.
Fresh-faced and eager to chat, the Waverley councillor and women’s rugby coach stood at the entrance of Randwick Public School for hours, welcoming each voter who walked through the door.
Having chatted to voters since this morning, alongside Michael Daley at South Coogee Public School, Ms O'Neill said the number one issue at the polling booths throughout the day was climate change.
“This Liberal government is totally out of touch and they are not prioritising it,” she said. “If you talk to voters here, it’s their number one issue and they want real action on it.”
But it was hard to miss the presence of her counterpart, Mr Notley-Smith, who at each polling station was happily greeted by residents as their familiar face, as he purchased a cupcake or two from the bake stall.
Feeling “relaxed” on the day, he admitted it had been a "challenging few weeks" for him after “opening the paper every day" to read up on his predicted loss.
Taking the day to chat with voters about a myriad of election topics, one future voter – five-year-old Benny Wadham – was keen to discuss his schooling with the Liberal MP.
Benny's father Shaun said he voted for the Liberal MP, based on the topic that seemed to be on everyone's lips at Coogee.
"On a local level, I think it's important to have a party who make good investments and I do like the new stadiums," he said.
For the young voters in the electorate, the new stadiums had the opposite effect, with Gen Y resident Alexander Cave voting properly for the first time.
"I used to always donkey vote, I didn't really care," he said. "But seeing the amount of money being spent on the stadiums when they could just be refurbed, I decided to put my first vote to Labor."
For his mate, Maroubra resident Callum O'Callaghan, hospitals were the one thing that pushed him towards a Labor vote.
On the minds of families, the need for a new high school was the hot topic, with both major parties discussing it at length at the polling booths.
Mr Notley-Smith took the time to explain a last-minute blunder made with a post asking “when did kids start expecting to be chauffeured to school?” posted on his Facebook page in relation to the lack of parking spaces at current schools, which are said to be "overflowing".
While snacking on a democracy sausage, he said the post “hadn’t been signed off” by him and was made by a separate member of his team.
"He is now insulting parents that drop their kids off at school, and that just really demonstrates how out of touch he really is with this electorate," Ms O'Neill proclaimed at the school gates.
Mother Nicole Graham said her family is already looking at moving out of the area, so 8-year-old Herby can go to a co-ed high school. The fact the Liberals have not backed the new high school was a deciding factor when casting the ballot.
"He has a lot of friends who are girls, and he cried when he found he wouldn't be able to go the same high school as them," she said. "My husband is really against selective and private schools, as am I, so we are just hoping for change soon."
While most discussed the policies of the major parties, Jon Hancock had lost faith in both, looking for an alternative to represent his views just ten metres out from the polling booth.
"It's a government having a long-term view rather than the short-termism that tends to run in the election cycle," he said.