The quiet Australians: How Kingston volatile booth of Aberfoyle Park will decide the election

Its voting habits are considered among the most volatile in the country and the balance of power remains with the undecided in this southern suburbs booth as a federal election looms.

Federal Kingston Labor member Amanda Rishworth may have held the seat of Kingston since 2007, but residents near Aberfoyle Park’s most volatile booth are unconvinced she will keep her job.

The booth at Aberfoyle Park High School, has only voted in her favour twice.

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The outer-metropolitan suburb is home to a higher than average number of residents with English and Australian ancestry.

It is made up of voters like 83-year-old John Ellis and 20-year-old bakery worker Bella Deyoung, who were adamant about who they would be voting for in the upcoming election.

Aberfoyle Park voter John Ellis. Picture: Brinley Duggan

Aberfoyle Park voter Bella Deyoung. Picture: Brinley Duggan

Mr Ellis, a retired draftsman, said he had come from a Labor voting household in his youth but he now voted Liberal.

“I had an experience where I voted Labor some years ago and I wasn’t all that impressed with what they did,” he said.

Ms Deyoung was on the opposite end of the age spectrum and the opposite side of the political agenda.

She will be voting in her first election and said gender played a significant role in what would be her eventual vote for Labor.

“I think what we’ve seen with the treatment of influential women and women in parliament has been really atrocious,” she said.

“The handling of the Brittany Higgins case and the way Grace Tame has been treated by Scott Morrison are awful and I hope they are things that would not be handled that way under a Labor government.”

Ms Rishworth and her Liberal party opposition Laura Curran both saw the votes swing their way in 2019 after the Nick Xenophon Team pulled out of federal politics.

Greens candidate Nikki Mortier pulled in 12 per cent of first preference votes and a swing of almost seven per cent.

Ahead of the election, only Ms Rishworth is a guarantee, with Ms Mortier replaced by John Photakis and no Liberal candidate as yet endorsed for the Labor-dominated working-class seat.

United Australia Party candidate Russell Jackson has also declared for the election.

Frances Flink, 40, Ginari Kite, 62, and Sarah Rezaee, 35, would back Labor.

Aberfoyle Park voter Frances Flink. Picture: Jason Katsaras

Aberfoyle Park voter Ginari Kite. Picture: Jason Katsaras

Ms Kite, a former nurse and Indigenous woman, said Australia was “in a mess” and Scott Morrison was not the man to change that.

Ms Flink believed Labor was “better for me” as a full-time carer.

Ms Rezaee said the humanity of the Labor Party’s immigration policies were important to her as an immigrant herself.

Like Mr Ellis, other older residents in the area tended towards the Liberal party.

Sylvia Gray, 88, was a staunch Liberal supporter, saying “vote Labor and you’re in trouble”.

A 71-year-old retired nurse and 72-year-old retired administrator, who both chose not to be named, said they would never vote Labor.

Aberfoyle Park voter Sylvia Gray. Picture: Jason Katsaras

Though many voters in Aberfoyle Park were set on the way they would vote, just as many were either voting for the first time or classed themselves as swing voters and had not yet made a call.

Dominic Cannalonga, a 64-year-old banker, Jean Trowbridge, a 77-year-old retired nurse and Lara Gardner, a 31-year-old social media manager, said they decided their vote based on the issues of the time.

With many voters in Aberfoyle Park set in their ways, whichever party best addresses those issues in the eyes of the swing voters loom likely as snaffling the Aberfoyle Park High School booth.