A Tale of Two “Teals”

By Jane Salmon

On slow pre-poll booths, flocks of “How To Voters” hover around the arriving constituent like seagulls waiting to descend on a chip.

Bradfield has been a jewel in the Liberal crown, a safe seat for 90 years. Now blue-eyed, close cropped blond, private school kids in blue shirts from far flung suburbs depart Dad’s Range Rover to muster at dawn. Staff are left to manage the home unsupervised. There are tall printed marquees, large LED trucks repeating slurs, snacks shared by even younger blonde kinder and a general air of entitled and slightly dismayed outrage.

Liberal helpers will be issued with a pile of corflute signs slurring the Independent contender with confected quotes from Murdoch stories. They snipe about trivia. Dutton is their leader and this is war! The Nuremberg defence removes any individual moral accountability.

A lone Akubraed academic in red ironically hums the Cabaret anthem “Tomorrow belongs to me” as he hurries into position on the dewy lawn outside the booth.

Silver-haired folk in tennis or golf gear confidently strut up to vote for franking credits, lower capital gains tax, annuities and their mining portfolios. A fair few will be voting from Tuscany, cruise ships, Greece, Galapagos or even Trump’s land of the not-so-free. Wives are not encouraged to think for themselves.

Nicolette Boele has achieved name recognition from Chatswood to Hornsby despite growing groups of Korean, Hindu, Urdu, Mandarin and Cantonese language voters. The campaign boasts a multitude of signs, advertising, a thick policy leaflet, bulk mail, polls and even bandannas for pets to wear to the dog park.

Climate concerned Gen-Xers in Teal shirts waggle corflutes in “Sign Lines” along the highway each morn before enthusiastically backing their spritely champion on the booths. Tall, elegant, artfully agreeable, with sweeping salt and pepper bob, she paces in sneakers, blouse and white jeans while preparing for the next Murdoch hit piece or polarised Town Hall forum. She is pulled between pro-refugee peaceniks and St Ives Zionists.

A public school parent, she must deal with dedicated “independent” school families up and down the golden north shore rail line. A Climate 200 backed candidate, she has to appeal to young bucks in RM Williams enthused by nuclear power promises plus logo polo wearers invested in coal and Teslas. Her policies, solid community ties, work, life and corporate finance experience sometimes seem eclipsed by Liberal lobbyist megabucks. Will her dedicated engagement throughout the last political term be overshadowed by Kapterian’s Armenian support in Willoughby or reputation for tough business calculation?

* * * * *

Meanwhile … on the harder pavements of Bankstown (in Watson electorate), diverse voters are queueing around the block to have their say. Some wait for hours despite overflowing car parks and the dearth of working railway.

Perhaps the LNP yearn for “tracks” because they can only think in binary straight lines without derailing, but an ongoing lack of mass transit is a real concern out here.

Yep, Western Sydney punters seem especially motivated to participate; despite even greater language issues, instruction not to vote from some faith leaders, homilies on how to vote by others, higher rates of illness, despair at duopoly, general confusion about preferencing and a flurry of last minute messaging designed to obfuscate actual party policies.

Slow voting lines tend to bring out curiosity and enhance political literacy. There is “Build a Ballot” to share with out-of-area voters. It is possible to exchange many ideas with bored people in lines. Most have their own tale to tell. Invite them to put their least favourite politician last on the form and watch their mouth crinkle upwards. Mention the possibility of holding the balance of power and clear eyes flash with hope.

Many voters in the queue are yet to realise there are two houses to vote for and that every box on the small green form needs to be numbered. The scale of chaos possible on the big white Senate tablecloth defies imagination. Clear advice for the Senate vote is scant.

Still other migrants with sheaves of degrees can confound psephologists with their local political and federal constitutional knowledge. Oversimplified pitches can offend. They need to be approached with humility.

Major parties seek to dash the prospect of real change by asserting that a vote for an independent is a vote for the other side, regardless of preferences. They suggest that an independent can never have influence: completely ignoring the example of Oakeshott and Windsor or the positive impact of Wilkie on Gillard’s minority government.

For the “Reds”, there is a log of distorted narratives and grudges from 14 years ago. Perfect is the enemy of good and policy perfectionists are therefore traitorous rotters. And gosh darn it, moral coherence or courage is just too hard. Everything is always someone else’s fault. Three years is always too soon to roll back bad policy. Better is simply not possible. But to voters, postponed funding promises count for nothing at all in this economy. “Gunna” isn’t good enough.

Western Sydney Libs disassociate from the racism and callousness of their leader. They pretend it is all about prosperity and the local candidate, usually a local business owner in a smart suit.

Major party spruikers for Labor stand right by booth entry barriers insisting that all is right with the world or soon will be. It is ungrateful to ask for more than reforms already won. Pork barrelling mosques is never “haram” and spraying $ millions in promises around the region is routine. Never mind global economic collapse or any failures to find funds thus far. Incumbency is the only real prize to them.

As a result, this “helper” would never presume to interrupt a right wing voter on its way to invalidate their own ballot paper. These are fairly easy to spot. First, there is the clutched and creased blue form. They zig zag past leafleteers in t-shirts of any other colour. Next come dismissive hand flicks, a theatric lack of eye contact, a bit of muttering. The biggest tell of all is when they manage to completely miss the heavily signed and postered entrance to the booth … only to walk into the nearest dead end or wall. Bless! Altruism is seen so cynically by those with large hindbrains, that one has no option but to submissively accept their autonomy. May their ballots all prove invalid!

Supporting Ziad Basyouny is an uplifting exercise. There is no Climate 200 seed money. (Perhaps a side effect of Zionist influence within philanthropy). Pet merch is displaced by printed pine car air fresheners out here.

Basyouny’s teal-coloured campaign focusses on substance, hard work, face-to-face contact and a warm Whatsapp community. Ziad gives his energy generously. He puts up signs, joins doorknock teams, answers voter questions, does interviews, packs printed carry bags, warmly greets supporters, debates policy, vlogs, hears out ideas and manages to stay upright for long days. Then there are all the picnics, meetings and events. He and his wife Yasmin bring exquisite meals to volunteers. Occasionally, the doctor’s eyes glaze with fatigue despite stamina developed across brutal hospital shifts. Basyouny is leaner and more tanned than 4 months ago (while his smooth, more elusive and even translucent opponent remains shark-pallid during a casual “caretakership”).

Compared to developing your own community campaign from scratch across a swathe of suburbs, being a party MP looks pretty breezy. Incumbents who briefly showboat in other electorates dodge the challenges in their own.

In fact, Watson has already seen the “Back of Burke”. His occasional appearances at multicultural events are brief and tightly managed. He baulks at many inclusive events for fear of encountering critics. Eid and the Easter Show may be close on the calendar, but are cultural poles apart.

Burke has ignored some Arts projects outside Labor areas. He reopened immigration detention on Nauru under media blackouts, uses detention ships to store deportees and has a backlog of derailed “Fast Track” cases that won’t be resolved within 100 years at the current rate. His twenty-plus years in professional politics have not relieved enough suffering. In fact, for immigrants he has caused more: mirroring the LNP at almost every turn. Given that all three tiers of government are tied to Labor, refugees dare not cross him.

He slithers over the surface of ethnic-dress diversity, carping on about family cohesion and security when not patronising the desperate. His response to wholesale death in Gaza is timidly tokenistic.

Burke’s challenger Basyouny holds a strong position on Palestine while appealing to voters who are not Muslim. Eco groups rate him. People from most minorities recognise that Ziad offers a safe pair of hands: he is a doctor, after all.

The voting game makes odd bedfellows. A preference exchange between Basyouny and the “Libertarian” mob has raised eyebrows. Controversial Craig Kelly seems to be up to his fourth party. (The former Liberal Democrats may have passable policy on Palestine but do not seem too particular about who they take).

No amount of Labor rhetoric can conceal that Egyptian-born Basyouny is more local medical doctor than spin doctor or careerist hack. He has worked night shifts as a cleaner and literally held hearts together as an Emergency specialist at Bankstown. Lakemba mothers without English, gesture that has delivered their babies. He has run a bulk billing practice in recent years.

One March morning he was commuting to his clinic in fresh scrubs when he saved the life of a man whose car had been mangled after hitting a tree. Can you imagine Barnaby Joyce even being awake then, let alone doing that?

Basyouny alone addresses community stress in Watson head on. He engages directly on issues of diversity, human rights, Israeli genocide in Palestine, hospital funding, the need for immediate imposition of bulk billing, raising nurse wages, promoting prosperity, breaking supermarket and political duopolies. Labor strategists stalk him at the booths. Business owners offer hugs.

He is demanding and already inspiring better in western Sydney politics. It is powerful stuff and he deserves to do well.

* * * * *

Ahmed Ouf is making waves in neighbouring Blaxland where margins are even tighter. It’s not every candidate who stops in his tracks to have a chat, share balloons with kids or help strangers reverse park.

Many votes will be wasted over in marginal Werriwa. There the candidates are less strong and Muslim Votes Matter has preferred Liberals over Labor, though running no candidate themselves.

Greens campaigns are also interesting to compare across electorates. Senator Mehreen Faruqi’s campaign has voters polarised.

We have five more days to jog through but the heat is on incumbents and signs of desperation are everywhere.

 

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