Relative calm as thousands turn out to vote in Sydney's marginal seats

Sydney Morning Herald

03-05-2025

On Friday, acting Australian electoral commissioner Jeff Pope spoke on RN Breakfast to say Wentworth was among Sydney electorates where police had been called to deal with incidents of bad behaviour. Knox said she'd experienced first-hand the heightened aggression particular to this election.
'The teals in particular have been very, very aggressive during this campaign,' she said. 'Personally, I've experienced some relatively poor behaviour from some of the volunteers, definitely not from Allegra Spender though, she's [maintained] high integrity throughout the campaign.'
Later in the morning, Spender cast her vote seaside at the Clovelly Surf Life Saving Club. Choosing not to comment on Knox's specific claims about some teals' behaviour, Spender reiterated more generally the need to act cordially.
'To be honest what I try and say and what I've been trying to say to everybody is that people can have different views but in this country we need to disagree well ... it doesn't matter who you're voting for, it doesn't matter what your views are. Let's engage constructively,' she said.
There to meet Spender in the queue was 46-year-old filmmaker Daniel Reisinger.
'I think like a lot of people in this electorate, [I'm] just kind of sick of what the Liberal Party's been doing. It's gotten to a point of madness, denying climate change ... I was bitterly disappointed with what happened with the [Voice] referendum, and I think a lot of people are angry and not over that.'
Joining the line after a swim in her recently purchased Australian-themed swimsuit, adorned with thongs, barbecues and tiny sausages, Olivia Ford, 27, took a bite out of her first-ever democracy sausage since moving to Australia from the UK. Her verdict: it 'tastes like democracy', she said.
South-west Sydney
South-west Sydney is considered 'Labor heartland'. Aside from the seat of Fowler at the last election, Watson and Blaxland have only ever been held by Labor.
In the seven polling stations the Herald visited on Saturday, there were no food stands, barbecues or community-run stalls. Instead, voters (many from Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Vietnam, Syria and China) were there to exercise their right to vote in a democracy.
Labor's Education Minister Jason Clare said the war in Gaza was a major concern to his constituents in his seat of Blaxland, with a third of his electorate identifying as Muslim. Clare's challenger, independent Ahmed Ouf, deployed an intense grassroots campaign on local issues, aiming to pull disillusioned voters in a seat that had a safe Labor margin of 13 per cent.
Saqr Anejdawi voted for Ouf and said his main concern was Gaza, but he was also desperate for a change in government to deliver local infrastructure. 'Labor has taken us for granted,' he said.
'Ahmed Ouf may not win but will show the big parties we have a vote, we will vote against you as a protest. We have the right as [the people voting for] Zali Steggall, Allegra Spender, to vote for our independents as well.'
Cost of living was another big issue in south-west Sydney. '[The politicians] they're on top wages. They don't realise what the struggles the families are going through at the moment, middle- and low-income rental, people can't even get into their first home,' Nermine Serour said after voting at the Bankstown Senior Citizens Centre in Bankstown in the seat of Watson. Watson is safely held by Labor with a 15.2 per cent margin.
She and Amalia Crossley made a protest vote against the main parties on Saturday after what they felt had been many 'false promises' from Labor by putting the majors last, and Greens and independents first.
'What about us? We're the people of the country, and the No. 1 thing is that we don't have enough housing to support families,' Crossley said. 'That's why I strongly voted towards the Greens.'
Over in Fowler, Dai Le retains one of the tightest margins in the state of 1.1 per cent against Labor.
'We've got five cabinet ministers in the current government in western Sydney, five labor MPs … the people in western Sydney can tell you they've done nothing,' Le said.
The Labor challenger is Tu Le, but Dai Le predicts 'a swing against Labor in western Sydney now, with other independents'.
North shore
In Bennelong – NSW's most marginal electorate, with an estimated margin of 0.04 per cent in favour of Liberal challenger Scott Yung over Labor incumbent Jerome Laxale – the Coalition candidate was out early to greet voters alongside an army of volunteers at Eastwood Public School.
Loading
Yung was seen switching between Mandarin and Cantonese as he moved down the lines speaking to voters from the Chinese community, a key voting bloc in the seat. Later, he was joined by former prime minister Tony Abbott, who dismissed multiple potentially damaging reports about Yung's campaign 'as a lot of beltway bubble stuff'. He said Yung and Dutton had done well to appeal 'to a broad cross-section of Australians', despite the slow shift away from the Liberal Party in the seat of former prime minister John Howard.
Yung would not say if any of the volunteers present were members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren, which sent hundreds of its members to pre-polling booths in marginal seats while instructing them to keep secret that they were members of the controversial religion.
'I think it's in everyone's right to participate in Australia's democracy,' he said, before Yung's campaign staff ended his interview with this masthead.
At Denistone East Public School, where Laxale went to vote and hand out preference cards to voters, the Labor member was equanimous about the possibility of losing the seat.
'We've never held on to Bennelong. History is not on our side, so we need to make history today, and we'll go right until six o'clock.'
Asked whether reports earlier this week that his father, Alain, had made homophobic comments at a pre-polling station that had hurt his campaign in the crucial final stretch, Laxale said: 'We'll see what happens'.
'We've been really focusing on cost of living and housing locally here … my dad regrets what he said, and he's very apologetic, and we'll move on from that.'
In neighbouring Bradfield, where Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian holds an estimated margin of 2.5 per cent over teal independent Nicolette Boele, polling places were quiet after record pre-polling. Kapterian declined to speak to the Herald but appeared upbeat, embracing and shaking voters' hands at Turramurra Public School.
Boele cast her vote at her alma mater, Killara High School. Accompanied by her daughter and first-time voter Saskia, the teal candidate studied her preferences with the help of Herald photographer Steven Siewert's reading glasses.
In 2022, Boele ran unsuccessfully against Liberal MP Paul Fletcher, who is stepping down. She refused to say if she would run again in 2028 if she lost to Kapterian. 'Can I answer that question after we see how we go tonight?' she said, laughing.
Western Sydney
Across the Parramatta electorate there was an air of politeness. At Parramatta West Public School, a volunteer for Blaxland Independent Ahmed Ouf was seen offering volunteers from all parties some food, while one Labor volunteer said he gave a Liberal supporter a 'leg up' to hoist a sign above the entrance. It comes despite Liberal signs being reportedly slashed and pulled down earlier in the morning at the same location.
Over at Ermington West Public School, Liberal volunteers gave out handballs to voters, while Labor had their own collection of drink bottles, personalised with the face of Parramatta incumbent Andrew Charlton.
Visiting the polling booth, Charlton, who voted early, appeared upbeat as he chatted to voters queuing up outside the school. He told the Herald he was 'feeling good' about the election and had already enjoyed a democracy sausage during an earlier visit to a polling booth.
'I went a little bit early if I'm honest, at 11.30am, so don't know what that means for the next meal, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it,' he said before heading to the barbecue for another one.
Shortly after his arrival, two trucks branded with advertising for Liberal candidate Katie Mullins drove by, the drivers beeping their horns.
The queue started early at Parramatta's Arthur Phillip High School, with Sebastian Gerard-Duhau, 28, saying he opted to cast his ballot the day of the election because sickness ruined his chances of an early vote.
High school teacher Sonia Emily Hutchinson, 34, said she voted for the Greens and Labor. 'I always vote in regard to health and education because that's where me and my friends work … and sort of looking forward to the future of how we're going to be taken care of in this country. And then also on climate,' she said.