Michael McGuire: A trip to the heart of Mayo finds a lot of love for MP Rebekha Sharkie
It’s not often you find someone who says they like a politician. From the shores of Horseshoe Bay to cosy shops and inns in the Hills, it happens all the time down in Mayo.
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There is something odd happening down in Mayo. Most people actually seem to like their local MP.
You know, as a person. In an age of politics that is defined by division and anger, by scepticism and cynicism, this feels like something rare enough to remark upon.
In some ways, it’s no surprise.
A poll earlier in the week in The Advertiser had Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie as clear favourite to hold on to her seat at next week’s election. The poll had Sharkie leading her opponent, the Liberals’ Georgina Downer, 57-43 on a two-party preferred basis.
Still, numbers are one thing.
There can be a lot of reasons that determine why people cast a vote the way they do — hip-pocket nerve, habit, views on certain issues.
Personal rapport can help, though, as well and Sharkie — since she was first elected at the 2016 poll — seems to have made it something of a specialty.
She even survived a bruising encounter with Section 44 of the Australian Constitution, that’s the one that prevents MPs holding dual citizenship, which caused her to resign and recontest a by-election.
Mayo is a sprawling electorate. It stretches from Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills all the way down to Cape Jervis, taking in Stirling and Strathalbyn, Victor Harbor and Yankalilla. Kangaroo Island also falls within Mayo.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Mayo is a lot less diverse than the rest of Australia. Only 16.9 per cent of its population was born overseas, compared to 26.3 per cent across Australia, while only 3.3 per cent are classed as recent migrants, compared to 9.9 per cent.
Mayo is also a little older.
Around 4.7 per cent of its residents are 80 or over. The national average is 3.9 per cent. Those between the ages of 65 and 79 make up 16.6 per cent of those that live there, against a national average of 11.5 per cent. Which all makes sense as towns such as Victor and Goolwa are popular places to retire.
As you make your way around the electorate, this makes a lot of sense.
A day of driving through Victor, Port Elliot and Goolwa before turning north to Strathalbyn, Mt Barker, Hahndorf and Stirling is a lovely way to spend the day.
Even when it’s damp and grey, there is a peaceful, gentle feeling to the area, only broken by the multitude of election posters hanging off every Stobie pole.
In Ocean St in Victor Harbor, Julie Modra runs Tudor Homewares and The Coffee Palace.
She grew up in a Liberal-supporting house, voted for the Liberals most of her life as well, but is now firmly in the Sharkie camp. So much so that she has already voted for Sharkie and has a sign out the front of her shop.
Ms Modra uses a word to describe Sharkie that is repeated often around the electorate. Sharkie, she says, “listens’’.
“She is very visible in the community, she goes to a lot of things and listens,’’ Ms Modra says.
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“Everybody is important and she listens and evaluates and I am gobsmacked by her capability in the community.’’
They are also a polite lot down in Mayo. While many will happily talk up Sharkie, they are a little hesitant about talking down her opponent, Georgina Downer.
Certainly, no one wants their name attached to anything too unpleasant. And Ms Modra is in that basket as well.
But prod a little more and, again, a similar theme emerges which perhaps illustrates why Downer has been up against it in Mayo since day one, even though her father, Alexander Downer, was the local MP here for 24 years.
The word “entitled’’ is sprinkled through many conversations. As is “parachuted”. There is an awareness that Downer had tried to win a seat in Melbourne before returning to the area where she grew up. Many express a feeling that the Liberals had taken Mayo for granted for too long.
“They think it’s still like the feudal times around here,’’ one man says.
It’s not that Downer is without support. But they do tend to be among the older residents of Mayo.
In Strathalbyn — while, coincidentally, Alexander Downer is manning the town’s pre-poll station about 200m away — Evon and Patrick Ryan are enjoying a coffee in the warmth of The Old Market Shed cafe.
A roaring fire is burning in the background as 83-year-old Patrick confirms he will be sticking with the Liberals this election. He nominates “security’’ and the “economy” as the issues most important to him.
Wife Evon, 72, adds aged health care and unemployment to the list, with health being a particular focus. The Ryans live in Milang and need to travel the 20km to Strathalbyn if they want to see a doctor. “Milang is not a very big place, but a big issue there is we don’t have a doctor,’’ she says.
Like many voters, Evon concedes the concerns closest to home are the ones that she pays most attention.
On the balcony of the Port Elliot Surf Lifesaving Club overlooking Horseshoe Bay, the morning swimmers have gathered for a chat. But that natural Australian aversion to talking politics takes over and they are not keen to talk publicly on the topic.
It’s not that they are disengaged or disinterested, it’s just they don’t want to share their opinions with the world. Which is sensible, if not useful for a journalist.
Slowly, though, a few issues emerge. Climate change is one. The prospect of drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight is another. The state of Victor Harbor Rd and the rise of China also rate a mention. The half a dozen or so seem united on one thing, though. They like Rebekha Sharkie and will probably vote for her.
One swimmer breaks from the pack of anonymity. Jacquie Showell, a 77-year-old Goolwa resident, declares she will “go for people who are for the planet’’.
This leaves her thinking about the Greens candidate, Anne Bourne, and the “fantastic” Sharkie. The fate of the Murray is worrying her.
“I grew up on the river and the river feels like my lifeblood,’’ she says.
But if you speak to a lot of people, a lot of different priorities are thrown up.
In Mt Barker, disability support worker David Johnson nominates more help for pensioners and the casualisation of the workforce as important topics.
In Hahndorf, the executive chef of the Hahndorf Mill, Alvin Charles, mentions wages and immigration. “If they started to pay people more, they will spend more and it will help develop the economy as well,’’ he says.
The 29-year-old lives in Littlehampton and moved from India 10 years ago. He says people should see migration as a positive because those that move here want to develop a career and support their families. “They are coming here to make a living,’’ he says.
Author Molly Murn, who works in Stirling’s renowned Matilda Bookshop, added another concern to the list. She says she would like to see action on the Uluru Statement, which calls for a representative indigenous body that advises the federal parliament, to be included in the Constitution. Murn also talks of the growing gap between rich and poor and climate change.
She is still deciding who to vote for, but is another in the long line of Mayo people to have been impressed with the seat’s incumbent.
“She seems quite authentic and like a real person and turns up when it matters.’’
CANDIDATES
1. Georgina Downer, Liberal Party
2. Anne Bourne, Greens
3. Helen Dowland, Animal Justice Party
4. Michael Cane, United Australia Party
5. Saskia Gerhardy, Labor Party
6. Rebekha Sharkie, Centre Alliance
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