Coast returns to Labor

THE CENTRAL COAST has returned to its roots as an ALP stronghold with Member for Dobell being convincingly reelected and Dr Gordon Reid, with the help of The Greens out voting Member for Robertson Lucy Wicks.

Early results showed Dr Reid with 39% and Mrs Wicks 39% of the first preference count. The Greens got almost 10% which secured Dr Reid’s position. All up, eleven candidates stood in Robertson.

In Dobell Ms McBride got 43% with Liberal candidate receiving 39%, again The Greens’ almost 9% of the vote ensured Ms McBride would walk in.

The two candidate preferred vote after the first day’s count showed Ms McBride with 56.5% and Dr Feneley with 43.5%. Ms McBride increased her margin this time around from 51.5% in 1999.

Ms McBride is the daughter of the most popular

State Member the Coast has ever had, the late Grant McBride, who represented The Entrance Seat for almost 20 years. During that time he was Minister for Gaming and Racing and Minister for the Central Coast.

Ms McBride was Chief Pharmacist and then Deputy Director of Pharmacy at the Central Coast Local Health District for ten years until 2016 when she was elected the Member for Dobell. In the last parliament she was Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Shadow Assistant Minister for Carers.

Dr Reid is the son of Woy Woy funeral director Bryan J Reid Funeral Services, Gordon Reid attended Umina Public School and then Central Coast Grammar School. He achieved his medical degree at the University of Newcastle and subsequently worked Gosford, Woy Woy and Wyong hospitals.

Elected in 2013 Mrs Wicks leaves a legacy that saw the University of Newcastle establish the recently opened Central Coast Clinical School and Research institute and ensured funding of $18 million in the 2019 Federal Budget for a new campus in the Gosford CBD for the UON.

She also saw the Australian Taxation Office built in Gosford although her claims that 600 taxation people work in the building have always been disputed with many saying there are less than 100.

Emma McBride MP

Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation, Ed Husic MP and Member for Dobell Emma McBride (centre) announced in early May that an Albanese Labor Government will boost manufacturing jobs on the Central Coast by funding a Food Manufacturing Innovation Hub with a $17.4 million investment in a Food Manufacturing Hub at Lisarow (See Page 11) Dr Gordon Reid MP

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