Independent candidate for Bean Jessie Price may well be back next time if David Smith survives. Photo: Region.
Even if Labor’s David Smith hangs on in Bean, he may have to face off against independent Jessie Price again next election in what will now be a marginal seat.
Ms Price is still riding high after Saturday’s federal election, and says she will come back for another crack at the southern Canberra seat if Mr Smith scrapes home.
That won’t be known for some time, with the count in Bean paused today.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, with almost 85 per cent of the vote counted, Mr Smith holds a slim lead with the two-party preferred vote favouring him by 51 per cent to 49 per cent, but only four of 54 polling places returned and 8.37 per cent of the ballot papers counted have also had a two-candidate preferred (TCP) count done.
About 17,000 votes are still to be counted, including postal votes.
Mr Smith, who sat on a margin of 12.9 per cent before Saturday, had little to say other than the race was very tight.
“Counting will continue this week, with the Labor primary holding up,” he said.
“Overall, it’s a great win for Labor and for those who believe in and support public service.”
Ms Price said she was proud of what her team had achieved, and sounded a warning to the other Labor members that there is no such thing as a safe seat anymore.
“We’ve done an incredible thing that is going to have a real impact for our community,” she said.
“I’ve certainly had people from the other two electorates saying, gosh, I wish we had an independent, and really, because it comes from the community, if they want one, they can.”
Describing the movement as people power, Ms Price said it gave people who are concerned about politics and their community the opportunity to be part of something and have an impact.
“It’s a pretty powerful thing,” she said.
Labor Member for Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh, said David Smith is a “very connected grassroots local member”. Photo: Supplied.
Ms Price said people in Bean felt neglected and forgotten, frustrated with party politics but thrilled to have an option to get behind.
“It’s proactive, it’s wanting to reach out across party lines and find where the good solutions are coming from,” she said.
“I think people want problems solved.”
Ms Price would not be drawn on whether Mr Smith had been visible enough in the electorate, but said Labor had baulked at tackling significant issues.
“We’ve seen the Labor Party back away from passing the gambling ad bans. We’ve seen them back off from strengthening the EPA, a number of things that are really important to the people, but it’s very visible how captured the party is by vested interests, including in the climate space, and that’s where people want that stronger representation,” she said.
Ms Price said that Labor’s significant majority did not mean the crossbench in the House would be frozen out.
“I think that means the role of the crossbench is even more important this term in terms of holding the government to account,” she said.
Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh, said Mr Smith was up against a very well-funded campaign that outspent his.
“If you look within the seat of Bean – we’ll see when the AEC returns come through – but I would guess the Climate 200 money significantly outmatched what the Labor Party was spending in that seat,” he told the ABC.
“One of the reasons that we moved to bring those ACT-style expenditure caps into the federal Parliament was in order to stop some of these very deep-pocketed, funded campaigns of the kind that went up against Dave Smith.”
Mr Leigh, who comfortably held his seat, said he remained hopeful that Mr Smith could get back.
“He’s an incredibly hard-working local member … he’s a very connected grassroots local member,” he said.
