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The voters of Kiama have cast their ballots and Labor now faces an anxious wait to see if it has won over supporters of the popular MP turned convicted rapist Gareth Ward, whose imprisonment triggered Saturday’s byelection.
A win for Labor’s Katelin McInerney, the frontrunner, would be a feat not seen in NSW since 1996 – the flipping of a seat in a byelection that goes for, rather than against, the government.
McInerney was supported on Saturday by an admittedly “nervous” Premier Chris Minns at Albion Park, where she made her final pitch to voters.
“This is a community that I love and one that I will absolutely fight for,” she said.
Liberal Serena Copley was left to fend for herself in her final press conference – Liberal Leader Mark Speakman chose to instead hit some voting booths separately.
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If Copley loses, it could spell trouble for Speakman’s leadership.
Liberal sources speaking on the condition of anonymity were bracing for a terrible result. Two MPs previously told the Herald a result of less than 30 per cent of the primary vote would almost certainly be a death knell for Speakman.
On Friday, he brushed off the “mischief-makers” in his party and insisted the Liberals were always the underdogs in the byelection.
Ward wrestled Kiama for the Liberals in 2011, but instead of sticking with the party voters returned Ward as an independent candidate in the 2023 election. Expelled from the party when charged with sexual abuse offences, Ward resigned in August after his conviction.
“He did a lot of good for the community, especially up this way with the Albion Park bypass,” said Mark Thornett, a Bomaderry local who was a Ward voter but on Saturday chose McInerney.
Kiama local Judy Carr said she voted for Ward in 2023 to “give him the benefit of the doubt”. She said she was disappointed and disillusioned by his conduct, and was looking at candidates who would fight against “overdevelopment”.
The poll result will be difficult to pick, given the Ward vote is looking for a new horse to back, the 13 candidates on the ballot paper and the intricacies of NSW’s optional preferential voting system.
Climate 200-backed independent Kate Dezarnaulds believes a Labor victory is likely, but said her community would be better served by an independent.
She said Gareth Ward was “responsive, he was independently minded, he was hard-working, he was available, and he could actually speak up on behalf of the community on issues that were not necessarily major party policies.
Community independent Kate Dezarnaulds previously ran in the federal seat of Gilmore. Credit: Janie Barrett
“So the community wants to be able to retain those qualities in their new member. They’re not going to get that if they elect somebody from the major parties.”
Ward is behind bars awaiting his sentencing hearing on September 19. On Saturday, as his one-time constituents voted on their new member, Ward’s home in Meroo Meadow was open for inspection.
Ward bought it shortly after his election victory in 2011. It was quietly put up for sale last month after his conviction for sexually abusing two younger men.
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