Werriwa watch: one week to go
The Werriwa by-election is next Saturday.
Alan Ramsey in today’s SMH has this wonderfully bitchy piece about the selection of Chris Hayes as the Labor candidate for Werriwa. As Ramsey sees it, there is a risk Labor will lose Werriwa because of the candidate imposed on the electorate by the party machine in the Sussex Street head office.
Personally, I do not think there is too much risk for Labor.
The SMH included this wrap-up on Werriwa.
Citizens of Werriwa be alert but not alarmed - with a week to go before a by-election with 16 revved up candidates, it nay be prudent to lock up your babies, ignore persistent door knocking and avoid public places.
Chris Hayes might have the might of the ALP machine behind him but the others have got people power.
The former policewoman turned police corruption campaigner Debbie Locke has even got a new People Power party, launched last Saturday. She has a crew of supporters to help with a hectic schedule of rail stations and shopping centres.
Also hitting train stations is the Socialist Equality Party candidate Mike Head, a senior lecturer in law at the Campbelltown campus of the University of Western Sydney. He plans “door knocking, shopping centre appearances, campaigns at UWS, TAFEs and high schools”.
The former ALP member Ned Mannoun, who is running on the slogan “Tell it like it is”, said the only thing “I know for certain in the last week of this election is that sleep will be rare”. The 23-year-old said this was the beginning of a three-year campaign aimed as spending the “rest of my life in politics”.
If the going gets tough he could take some solace from Marc Aussie-Stone, who is clocking up his 17th crack at a federal seat. The man who inspired a change to the Electoral Act years ago by changing his name to get first on the ballot paper describes himself as “Australia’s leading defeated independent candidate”. He plans to spend the week encouraging other independents to keep up the good fight.
As for Hayes - he must have been so busy on the hustings that he couldn’t find the time to answer our email or phone call.
Also, I received this email from one of the candidates. It makes a number of claims about other candidates which are sourced to local papers.
There are a few gaps in your googling of the candidates… The Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser has a picture and small write up on all the sixteen candidates, while the Liverpool City Champion has a profile and picture for about half of the candidates…
For example, James Young has been a member of the Liberal Party for 12 years. Somehow I don’t think he has anything to do with research into the Soviet Union.
Ned Mannoun has just joined the LIBERAL Party, and gave up his US citizenship to run for Werriwa, even though he is only 23 years old…
It is pedantic, but I should point out that these additional factoids do not represent a gap in my googling of the candidates. The claims cannot be found on the web through google.
Furthermore, it is always possible I have been misinformed, and that Ned and James are not members of the Liberal Party. So, take the above quote with a pinch of salt. If James or Ned wish to deny or further clarify these claims, drop me a line.