Phelps rubbishes Wentworth poll

October 5 2018
SBS News

Wentworth by-election candidate Kerryn Phelps has rubbished a poll funded by her political rivals, which shows the Liberal Party vote has collapsed and taken hers down with it.   

The poll, commissioned by independent candidate Licia Heath, shows the Liberal Party will only just retain the previously safe east Sydney seat 51 to 49 per cent in the two-party preferred category.

Liberal candidate Dave Sharma is predicted to grab 40.6 of the first preference votes, Guardian Australia reported on Friday, down from outgoing Malcolm Turnbull's 62.26 in 2016.

Dr Phelps is tipped to receive 16.9 per cent of the primaries, according to the poll.

But the independent candidate says the important poll is the final vote on October 20.

"I'm focused on making sure the people of Wentworth understand what I stand for and they have the choice to elect a strong local independent," she told AAP on Friday.

"I'm getting a strong sense in the streets of Wentworth that people are looking for politics done differently.

"I don't think people have much of an appetite anymore for the bickering and backstabbing and infighting and that's what an independent can bring to parliament."

A study of the electorate, released earlier this week by the Voter Choice Project, showed the electorate wanted to "send a message to the Liberals" that they're upset the party shafted their Prime Minister.   

The poll showed 52 per cent of respondent's said Dr Phelp's decision to preference the Liberals made them less likely to vote for her.   

But Dr Phelps said her how-to-vote cards would put independents and minor parties at the top and major parties at the bottom.

She has joined former Victorian Court of Appeal judge Stephen Charles QC to back the establishment of a national integrity commission.

Both say the public has lost faith in political institutions as major parties switched prime ministers, spent billions of public money and forged business relationships with no oversight.

Dr Phelps wants a proper register of lobbyists and ministers' diaries published to show who they are meeting with.

Mr Charles said the national body would operate like NSW's Independent Commission Against Corruption and also examine "procurement" spending by departments and other organisations.

He pointed to the federal government's decision to spend billions on French submarines as an example that needed more rigorous examination.

red baron wrote on Oct 6^th, 2018 at 4:31pm:


While I agree with your conclusion, I so wish you'd stop the bastardising overuse of cliches.  Yes I know you reckon it is colourful, but in truth, it is trite brutality to prose.