A lifetime Labor voter says he will back One Nation at the Farrer by-election, after Labor’s decision not to field a candidate left him reassessing his vote.
Albury resident Nico Mathews has a long history with the Australian Labor Party (ALP), rooted in what he describes as a family tradition of working-class politics and campaign involvement spanning generations.
Mr Mathews stood as the Labor candidate in Farrer in the 2001 federal election, the same year former Liberal MP Sussan Ley won the seat for the first time.
“I finished third. People forget that the birthplace of the Liberal Party was in Albury back in the 1950s,” he said.
“It’s a very hard seat to win federally because it’s always been a Coalition-held seat.”
Long-time Labor voter Nico Mathews says he will vote for One Nation at tomorrow’s by-election. (ABC News: Gaye Pattison)
He said Labor’s decision not to run a candidate in the upcoming by-election was disappointing.
Mr Mathews believes the lack of a Labor candidate may be a missed opportunity for the party to connect with voters looking for change.
With no Labor option on the ballot, he said his next best choice was One Nation.
“I’ve balanced them up … and I just think One Nation policies have a better backing than what the Liberal and Labor policies do,” he said.
The Liberals, Nationals, One Nation and an independent are among those contesting the Farrer by-election tomorrow. (ABC News: Nicola Ceccato)
Mr Mathews said he was “pissed off” with the major political parties.
“Labor, the Liberal Party, National Party and the Greens because they’ve all, over the years, taken a little bit here and a little bit there and we are getting less and less,” he said.
“I am not going to hide. I’ve always told people how I am going to vote, and if people want to judge me for how I vote, that’s their prerogative,” he said.
More than 45,000 people in Farrer have already cast their votes. (ABC News: Greg Ryan)
Labor’s no-show ‘not surprising’
Kieran Drabsch stood as Labor’s candidate for Farrer at the 2019 election.
“I honestly believed the ALP was the best to support working and middle class,” he said.
Mr Drabsch joined the ALP in 2010 but resigned in January.
“I was disappointed with the federal government and especially the PM’s response to the attack at Bondi,” he said.
“I think the inability to name the core reason for the terrorism attack and deflection to address the underlying cause of the terrorism is a tragedy.
“I also disagree with, at a state and federal level, the Labor government criminalising forms of speech and forms of expression.”
Kieran Drabsch stood for Farrer as an ALP candidate in the 2019 election. (Supplied: Kieran Drabsch)
The former Griffith-based local, who now lives on the Central Coast, said by-elections were an opportunity for voters to send a clear message to the major parties.
“The Liberals didn’t invest in the seat for 30 years. With all due respect to the former member, the Liberals did not effectively invest in the infrastructure of Farrer,” Mr Drabsch said.
“They didn’t resolve the underlying water issues inherent to the Murray-Darling Basin.”
Mr Drabsch said Labor’s decision not to field a candidate was disappointing but unsurprising.
“It reflects the death of the Labor Party in rural and regional communities,” he said.
“In practice their branches are dying, and young people aren’t turning to Labor as a legitimate political option.
“Labor has let down rural and regional Australia.”
Would Labor preferences have made a difference?
Australian National University associate professor of politics Jill Sheppard said if Labor had run a candidate, it may have been able to direct preferences to independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe.
“What’s happened here is that the Liberals and Nationals have run candidates, but in the last week or so basically vacated the field to the One Nation candidate,” Dr Sheppard said.
“They’ve said that they would be explicitly happier with the One Nation candidate than with the independent.”
She said it was not unusual for Labor not to run a candidate in a by-election it knew it was unlikely to win.
“It’s usually seen as a good way to save money, resources, and not draw down on your volunteers’ free time,” she said.
Jill Sheppard says the major parties are not “reading the room” when it comes to how voters are feeling. (Supplied)
But Dr Sheppard said the move had not been well received by voters.
“I think it’s because it is a much more open field than it has been in the past and that the major parties are still not quite reading the room regarding where voters are at,” she said.
“They’re happy to turn against the major parties and that meant that the Labor Party preferences could have been formative in pushing the seat toward a more left-wing independent.
“But without them being on the ballot paper, that’s less likely to happen.”
Dr Sheppard said it was important not to read too much into the result in Farrer as a reflection of federal politics more broadly, describing the electorate as “ground zero” for changes in the political landscape.
“What it will tell us is that voters don’t like the major parties right now, but we knew that anyway,” she said.
The ALP has been contacted for comment.