State Election hots up

In the two weeks since our last edition, the battle for Kiama in the State Election on 25 March has been attracting a lot of attention.

The Prime Minister visited town to lend his support to Labor candidate Katelin McInnerney; the nomination of a local Liberal was rejected; the Premier and Opposition Leader made it clear they would suspend Gareth Ward again should he be re-elected; and at the last minute the Liberal Party nominated the outgoing Member for Holdsworthy, Melanie Gibbons, as their candidate for the seat.

It's any guess what will happen in the next two weeks, with prepolling beginning on Saturday 18 March. Ms Gibbons ended her first day on the campaign trail as the Liberal candidate with a trip to the Kiama Farmers’

Market to meet local voters.

She’s keen to get the Premier down to campaign for her, given he tapped her on the shoulder earlier this week, just in time to register with the Electoral Commission.

“I said yes because Kiama needs a Liberal representa- tive,” she says.

“We need to give people the chance to vote Liberal if they want to.

“I love representing people and the opportunity to do that again, in such a special area, was really appealing.”

Until this election, Ms Gibbons was the Member for

Holdsworthy, but she failed to receive endorsement to run there again when her local branch was disbanded. “Politics happens,” she says philosophically.

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