Source : the age
The election volunteers at the Ware Street early voting centre in Fairfield have watched the line outside the run-down Bing Lee building grow longer each day.
More than 10 per cent of Australian voters have already cast their ballots at early pre-polling stations across Australia. And voters in the western Sydney seat of McMahon, who had hoped to get in early this Saturday to avoid crowds next week, might have been in for a surprise.
The busy early voting queue at Ware Street, Fairfield.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
By lunchtime Saturday the queue to vote had surpassed the length of the building and was extending around the block.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, the current local member, spent his Saturday handing out how-to-vote cards to the growing queue.
“Every year it gets busier,” he said of the Ware Street voting centre.
About a metre away from Bowen, also standing outside the Bing Lee building, is the Liberal candidate for McMahon, Carmen Lazar. In elections past, Lazar was a Labor supporter for Bowen’s campaigns, handing out his voting cards to those waiting in line. This year her cards are blue instead of red, and instead of Bowen’s face there’s a picture of her own.
Ghassan Issa speaks to McMahon MP Chris Bowen while he waits to vote in Fairfield.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
Lazar is a welfare officer at the Assyrian Resource Centre in Fairfield and said she left Labor because the party’s policies didn’t reflect the issues she was seeing in the community.
“I was a Labor councillor but unfortunately I resigned last year. I resigned last year because their policy did not resonate with what I was doing for these people,” she said.
Lazar believes the increasing cost of living is the biggest concern to Fairfield residents: “Housing affordability, cost of living, unemployment, gas, power, insurance, rent, food … It’s been 40 years of the Labor seat, these vulnerable [people] can’t do it. They can’t do it.
“I need to be true to myself, and true to these people, and true to God, so I resigned.”
Carmen Lazar meets voters in Fairfield where she used to be a Labor councillor.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
Bowen was first elected in McMahon in 2004 after being the Fairfield mayor in 1998 and 1999. Labor has held the McMahon electorate (formerly known as the Division of Prospect) for more than 50 years.
Ghassan Issa, 47, spent the middle part of his day in the queue on Ware Street. The builder from Fairfield West spent his time in line deciding who to vote for.
“They’re confusing,” he said about the various voting cards. “But I’m going to vote for this one.” He pointed to the Labor card, adding that it listed some of the issues he cares about, namely Medicare.
When Issa gets far enough into the queue, the man he’s just decided to vote for is there to meet him.
“I’ve met people who’ve told me they’ve been voting for me for 20 years; other people tell me they’re voting for me for the first time,” Bowen said. “I appreciate it all.”
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