The voter divide is palpable across the Eden-Monaro electorate in the south-east corner of NSW.
Although some paddocks near Mogo are dotted with signs for Liberal candidate Jerry Nockles, the ones near Bermagui have “liar” scrawled under them. Drivers are accosted in Cooma by bright yellow signs for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party and in Cobargo by bright orange signs picturing Prime Minister Scott Morrison holidaying in Hawaii.
The region has been devastated by years of droughts, the Black Summer bushfires, COVID-19 and now floods. It would be understandable if residents were apathetic — instead they’re passionate and very distrustful.
Many communities haven’t bounced back, hampered by a rental crisis caused by expensive home rebuilding or worker shortages, the soaring cost of living and a lack of social security support. Others believe there hasn’t been enough investment in future-proofing the region for extreme weather.
Many feel neither major party has a clear path forwards, and although most have decided who they’ll vote for, they don’t believe their vote will change anything.
Labor’s Kristy McBain — the first woman to represent the electorate — holds the seat with a 0.9% margin following a 2020 byelection.
She’s up against nine other candidates, including the Greens’ Vivian Harris, James Holgate from the Sustainable Australia Party, Darren Garnon from the United Australia Party, Maxwell Holmes from the Liberal Democrats, independent Andrew Thaler and Nockles.
Fuelling further distrust, Nockles doesn’t appear to live in the electorate, renting short-term accommodation in Jindabyne while his wife and children stay in the upmarket Canberra suburb of Griffith.
History doomed to repeat itself
The wide range of opinions is particularly obvious in Cobargo, a town of just 800 people in the agricultural region of the Bega Valley Shire.
The town rose to prominence in 2019 after local volunteer firefighter Zoey Salucci-McDermott, who at the time was pregnant, refused to shake Scott Morrison’s hand. She and her partner lost their home on New Year’s Eve, and hundreds of properties in the region were destroyed.
The Coalition was sent a message in this year’s byelection for the Bega region with a 12% swing to Labor. Many residents were still reeling from what they felt was a lack of support during the Black Summer bushfires, and feel even now history is doomed to repeat itself.
Cobargo’s centre has a hippie-ish feel to it, with brightly embroidered clothes, quirky art stores and a cluster of gnomes under a street sign titled “Gnome Valley”. Some residents care deeply about climate action while others worry about their livelihoods in the agricultural sector.
At Valiant Coffee, an Airstream caravan turned cafe, worker Tia Fereti said the town felt completely let down by the government during the fires — and the same mistakes were repeated during the recent floods. Resting against the cafe is the notorious photo of Morrison holidaying in Hawaii, wearing a floral headpiece, under the words “I don’t hold a hose”.
“We should get new signs saying ‘I don’t hold a mop, mate,’ ” she said.
It’s a similar story for Jane Hughes, who runs the Women’s Resource Centre in Bega, a charity that provides advice, donations and housing to women in need. She said not enough was being done to address domestic violence and homelessness in the region.
“Some residents felt like they were charity porn,” she said. The organisation doesn’t receive any federal funding, and can afford to operate only three days a week — with at least 50 women using its services across those three days.
“I don’t have a lot of faith in our politicians any more — on either side, to be honest,” she said.
Money spent wisely
But nearby, dairy farmer Rocky Allen has a different view. Allen owns about 400 cows spread across his now lush green 325-hectare farm. Although his house was undamaged by the fires, almost all his property was burnt — all but one already dead paddock and the cow pens.
As one of the lucky ones, he hosted others who had lost their homes and used his property as a hub for livestock feed donations. He still works with the charity Need for Feed to distribute donations — many farmers still aren’t back on their feet, despite the heavy rains.
“It feels like it happened just yesterday,” he said.
Allen benefited from a pool of $86 million for primary producers affected by the summer bushfires — funding announced just as the region’s byelection kicked off.
He’s not convinced everyone has held on to their anger after the fires: “Everyone was emotional [and] everyone hates the prime minister, it doesn’t matter which side of the fence they live on, that’s the Australian way. I don’t think the prime minister was gonna stop the fire.”
Allen was happy with how quickly he was able to access grants to rebuild his farm and doesn’t believe climate change should be a major election issue.
He’s voting Liberal, but if there was a local National — or even a conservative independent — candidate, he’d vote for them.
“You like to think they’d focus more on locally minded issues that sometimes get lost in the bigger scheme of things,” he said, adding he wants more future-proofing policies for farms, especially around water storage.
