Text Box: SIMON KELLY: INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE FOR THE FEDERAL SEAT OF BRADFIELD Text Box: Who is he, why is he running, and the real value of Independents Last Modified: 14 November, 2009 Welcome to the campaign to wrest control of Bradfield from the Liberals. The Liberals have held this seat since its creation in 1949, and always with a very comfortable majority. Over the coming days, this site will grow and present a compelling argument for all wavering voters in Bradfield to consider. Right now it is very basic, which is in keeping with what most would expect of an independent candidate. Who is Simon Kelly? Simon is a community-minded St Ives resident, professional engineer, business owner, happily married father of three, and a passionate believer in accountability. He was born at the Mater Hospital in Crows Nest in 1967, and has spent all but 5 of the years since living in Bradfield. He was schooled in the public system locally, and then attended private schools for years 6 to 12. He is a degree qualified Mechanical Engineer, who also holds a Master of Business degree. He runs a business in St Ives, employing young workers from this electorate and servicing more than 500 local clients. Why is he running? Simon is passionate about doing things properly. Spin, laziness and self-interest have no place when representing the community we live in. Politics must not be exempt from ethical observation and criticism. Despite the political norm, a higher standard of behaviour and decision making is possible. Great independents such as Ted Mack have demonstrated that fearless and inspirational public service is possible and worthwhile. The Bradfield community deserves to have serious candidates from which to make an informed choice. Despite there being 22 candidates, Bradfield residents are likely to have just three serious and intellectually significant candidates offering to represent them in our highest parliament: the Liberals, Greens, and a strong independent. Labor is not fielding a candidate. Safe Seats: A safe seat is a dangerous seat. Think about it. Democracy is weakened when either major party holds such a commanding position in an area that the other party doesn’t bother to contest the seat, as is happening in this by-election. When a seat is not fought for, and the incumbent isn’t held to account, support for the local community’s wishes isn’t always forthcoming. The NSW State Government provides a great example of this danger. Labor will never win the local seat, and the Liberals will never lose it. Labor treats the residents’ wishes with contempt. What’s worse, despite our encouragement, the Liberals don’t voice loud objections on our behalf. If they knew there was a real risk of being kicked out of office they would. So we have a problem with our seat being too safe. Despite the Liberal two party preferred margin falling from 75% to 63% over thirty years, 63% is still too much of a gap to make the Liberals worry. To demonstrate their contempt for the seat, they have pre-selected someone with no existing ties to Bradfield. Indeed, the pre-selected candidate was last involved in politics trying to win pre-selection in Cook (Cronulla) in 2007. Is this a sign of a committed Bradfield resident, or simply a politician in waiting, trying his hand in each seat that comes up? What good is an independent? Our federal parliamentary system works reasonably well, despite complaints being common. The quality of our democracy varies from parliament to parliament. My memory of some of the most effective parliamentary terms includes the period when Ted Mack was the member for North Sydney. Today Rob Oakeshott continues the fight for good governance in the NSW mid-north coast seat of Lyne. A balance between the party system and independents representing the Australian people is preferable to a system with no independents. An independent is not beholden to party interests, and is much less likely to be swayed by lobbyists. The ideal independent is a fearless inquisitor having the support of the constituents, access to the parliamentary systems and the capacity to shine a light of discovery on what is often a process lacking transparency and openness. The extent of power and influence one can exercise is far greater than a single vote: Any successful business person can attest to the hidden power of being able to influence others. These people don’t need to report to you, or be subordinate to you. With the correct approach, the power of an individual can be amplified by carefully putting a case to those who are receptive to change and have demonstrated an open mind. Politics is no different. Like-minded people seek each other out, and work to exert their influence more widely. These are the ones who are seen to make the impossible happen. If an independent doesn’t win a seat, what is the point of voting for one? If you are dissatisfied with what the system does for you, you have a choice: do nothing, complain, or try to become part of the solution. Most independent candidates for the House of Representatives don’t win the seat. Some run for good reason, some are time wasters or publicity seekers, and others just want to participate in the process. An independent winning the seat would be a wonderful community achievement and would serve Bradfield best. Whether Simon wins in Bradfield or not, the Liberal vote can be reduced if the non-Liberal candidates share preferences and put the Liberals last. Then their whopping margin can be reduced. If we can get the margin down into the 50’s, we will have opened up the seat, and that will produce better candidates from both sides, and more fight from those candidates. So even not winning the seat can create a win for the constituents in the longer term. Text Box: Supported by safeseat.com.au an organisation dedicated to making safe seats obsolete

BRADFIELD DESERVES BETTER:

please don’t support a blow-in liberal lawyer

When there’s a capable local engineer on offer

BRADFIELD DESERVES BETTER
Text Box: Click the icon to see Simon on climate change.

Post Election update:

 

The race has been run. Simon came 5th of 22 candidates. Simon did not reach the threshold to receive electoral funding, and has therefore forfeited the $500 deposit required from independent candidates. That’s the bad news. Now let’s look at the figures.

 

· The Liberal primary vote has been reduced by 3.3%.

· 8 of Fred Nile’s candidates produced the 8 worst results.

· Only 6 candidates scored more than 1000 votes.

· The highest scoring Fred Nile candidate was the person who held position 1 on the ballot paper by chance. I beat him too!

· The Australian Sex Party stood an intellectually strong and highly experienced candidate in a dumbed-down campaign. She did well, and good for her. Our booth workers reported that many young people who received their how to vote card simply said “why not”? She probably missed out on votes that she deserved by dismissive voters who were put off by the party name. She also collected votes from those who simply don’t care.

· The DLP candidate did very well, and had a late surge with postal votes. Well done. He was higher on the ballot than me, and also called Simon. Let’s hope that votes intended for me weren’t leaked to the DLP. Their vote in Bradfield was almost double their last house of representative effort.

· I was the highest ranked independent.

· 25.7% of enrolled voters did not vote.

· Of those who did, more than 6% did not cast a formal ballot.

· The Liberals modified my name on their how to vote card compared to AEC information. No other candidate’s name was modified.

 

So the Liberals primary margin was reduced, but their 2 party preferred vote was slightly improved at 63.9%. In other words, more preferences were passed to them than last election to compensate for the lower primary vote they received.

 

Statistics for the interested.

 

 

 

 

Authorised by Simon Kelly, 147 Warrimoo Avenue St Ives 2075. 0404 808 424

POSITION ON BALLOT

NAME

GROUP

VOTES

%

19

PENDER, Joseph Francis

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

53

0.08

20

PIX, David

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

95

0.14

8

ALLEN, Darryl

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

146

0.22

2

LUKE, Jodi

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

153

0.23

6

PEEBLES, Robyn

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

168

0.26

9

THEW, Leighton

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

182

0.28

17

HESTELOW, Andrew

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

270

0.41

18

HENG, Esther

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

342

0.52

3

HANRAHAN, Peter William

Independent

379

0.58

13

WATERSON, Victor

One Nation

429

0.65

14

GABB, Lucy

Liberal Democrats (LDP)

516

0.78

11

DOWLING, Philip

Independent

519

0.79

15

BUCKLEY, Brian

Independent

559

0.85

22

PRICE, Goronwy

Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy

663

1.01

21

BURT, Deborah

CCC

688

1.05

1

WHITEHALL, James

Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)

945

1.44

4

KOUTALIANOS, Bill

Independent

1,158

1.76

12

KELLY, Simon Matthew

Independent

1,333

2.03

5

McCAFFREY, Simon

D.L.P. - Democratic Labor Party

1,383

2.1

10

LEISHMAN, Marianne

Australian Sex Party

2,165

3.29

7

GEMMELL, Susie

The Greens

17,044

25.9

16

FLETCHER, Paul William

Liberal

36,628

55.7

 

 

 

 

 

 

INFORMAL

 

4,786

6.78

 

FORMAL

 

65,818

93.2

 

TOTAL

 

70,604

74.2