Kiama Voters Disappointed By Lack Of Incarcerated Criminals Running As Candidates In Tomorrow’s By-Election

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

This weekend’s NSW by-election in the seat of Kiama will be a temperature check for both the state and Federal government.

With Labor in power at both levels, the result will tell both Premier Minns and Prime Minister Albanese whether swing voters in marginal electorates are happy with the work they are doing.

While Labor is favoured to win, many political analysts are arguing that maybe the people of Kiama and surrounds are not really the best case study into the mood of everyday voters.

Considering, you know, the fact that the last time they went to the ballot they enthusiastically elected a man that had been fired from his own party after being charged with heinous sex crimes that he has since been convicted of before spending the final days of his political career sitting in a jail cell in Silverwater Prison while awaiting sentencing.

As a run of the mill coastal electorate, Kiama had never really drawn this much attention when it comes to state and federal politics.

With an upper middle class constituentcy that includes a large population of affluent retirees and cashed up tradies – it made sense for many years that Kiama would vote for the Liberal candidate.

But nobody really expected them to continue voting for the Liberal candidate even after he was forced to run as an independent after being slapped with multiple charges that they very well knew about in the lead-up to election day.

Even more bizarre, they opted to elect this ex-Liberal sex offender in defiance of the national trend that saw the conservatives lose both Federal and State elections by landslides.

It is not clear what was motivating the once seemingly normal people of Kiama to ignore the fact that the Liberal Party was well and truly on the nose for the rest of Australia after a tumultuous few years that included incompetent emergency responses to the black summer bushfires and COVID-19 pandemics. Furthermore, it makes less sense that would do this while also ignoring the CRIMINAL charges that the bloke they elected was facing.

It’s for these completely unpredictable and unexplainable voter trends that nobody really knows who will win tomorrow, but recent polls have shown that voters are frustrated by the lack of credentials in the crowded field of 13 candidates.

“They all seem to be happily married people who don’t have extremely sinister allegations surrounding them” says a disappointed local voter, Terry Long (68, accountant).

“Someone was saying that not one of them has even been thrown in a paddy wagon” says another voter Eddy Mulberry (38, builder)

“I just don’t know if I can vote for someone who hasn’t made national headlines for six months in the lead up to ballot day” says Bel Vedere (82, retiree).