(This article was originally written for UniPollWatch in July 2016, with Julian Dennis)
The electorate of Dunkley was officially called for the Liberal Party this Wednesday, with the Liberal’s Chris Crewther defeating Labor’s Peta Murphy.
Unipollwatch recently spoke with Murphy about her campaign, which she described as having a positive focus.
“I actually think we ran a really good campaign”, says Murphy. “All our policies locally were well thought out commitments to the things the community really needed.”
In the weeks leading up to the campaign, Murphy was criticised for her opposition to authorities being granted further powers to detain terror suspects without charge.
“There was no way I was going to let myself be distracted by petty smear attacks by the Liberal Party”, insists Murphy. “It didn’t stop us from running the campaign we wanted to run.”
Murphy believes that the CFA dispute in Victoria exposed the shallowness of the Liberal Party, and that the firefighters were taken advantage of.
“(The Liberals) hadn’t cared one iota about issues in the CFA until they thought it could get them votes,” says Murphy. “They’re not in a position to do anything about that dispute.”
Her campaign’s focus on positive policies rather than the CFA benefitted her at the polls, according to Murphy.
“The area they campaigned the hardest on for the CFA was in Langwarrin, and we got a swing of about 8.5% towards us at that polling booth,” says Murphy. “It says something about how our positive policies really resonated with people”
Unipollwatch also had the opportunity to speak with Phil Hurwood, a priest at St Luke’s Anglican Church in Frankston.
Hurwood believes that his parish was engaged and interested in the election this year.
“I think quite a lot of people are very engaged in political issues,” says Hurwood. “A lot of people are interested in the future and are concerned for the future of our society and our nation”
Immigration and the treatment of asylum seekers was a prominent issue in Dunkley, according to Hurwood.
“There are people around here who are passionate about refugees and asylum seekers, and how we mistreat them in detention centres”, says Hurwood. “The marriage issue might have also been discussed.”
Hurwood feels that he is part of a group in society which no longer feels they are represented in the major parties.
“I feel that mainstream parties are a little less representative then they used to be”, says Hurwood. “I think those parties have moved further to the political left over the past few years.”
Hurwood believes that these feelings are leading to the emergence of more minor parties.
“We’ve seen the rebirth of Pauline Hanson, which I think is because people who probably once voted Liberal are not so sure if the Liberals represent them anymore”, says Hurwood. “I think people are concerned with the way they see the nation going and are trying to find a way of expressing that in their voting.”