New Hawke flies in

By Lachlan Ellis
The new electorate of Hawke has chosen its first candidate, voting Labor as was predicted – but a rival candidate thinks the results are a sign of coming change.
At the time of writing, just shy of 78 per cent of votes have been counted, with projected winner Sam Rae gaining almost 8,000 more first preferences than his Liberal counterpart Enamul Haque.
Despite a 2.8 per cent swing towards the Liberals on a two-party preferred basis, the percentages sit at 57.4 per cent Rae’s way to 42.6 per cent for Haque.
Mr Rae said he was honoured to be elected Hawke’s inaugural MP.
“Being elected as the first Member for Hawke is a great and humbling privilege. The Albanese Labor Government will deliver on the issues that will improve people’s lives. We need more decent local jobs, Australian manufacturing, cheaper childcare and free TAFE,” he told the Moorabool News.
“I’m so excited to be part of a Labor team that will get on with delivering for Hawke over the next three years. We will hit the ground running to deliver all of the local commitments that we took to the election. Whether it be the $10 million to kickstart the Western Freeway Upgrade, the Sunbury Urgent Care clinic or the school and park upgrades, my first priority is to make sure our community gets the world-class infrastructure and services that it deserves.”
But looking more closely at the vote count shows it wasn’t as comfortable a victory as Labor might have expected in Hawke, much of which was formerly part of the electorate of Ballarat, which has voted Labor at every federal election since 2001.
Current first preference counts show a 7 per cent swing against Labor and a 2.7 per cent swing against the Liberals in Hawke, as the electorate follows the national trend of increased third-party support.
Mr Rae currently has 37.2 per cent of first preferences – compare that to Catherine King’s 47.8 per cent share in the Ballarat electorate in 2019.
Independent candidate for Hawke Jarrod Bingham, who urged supporters to “put the majors last, where they put you”, believes the state election in November will see a similar result.
“Being elected would’ve been great, but that wasn’t my main goal – my main goal was to send a bit of a message, and obviously we’ve done that. I’ve got every confidence that Daniel Andrews and our local State MPs are in damage control in the lead-up to the state election, and the first thing on their minds will be, ‘How did we lose so much support to an independent with very little resources?’,” he said.

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in the 31 May 2022 edition
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