NSW State Election: 60pc of voters in Chris Minns’ own electorate do not know him
NSW Opposition leader Chris Minns reveals his family have jumped on The Daily Telegraph’s snap survey in his electorate which revealed 60 per cent of respondents didn’t recognise him.
State Election
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NSW Opposition leader Chris Minns has made light of The Daily Telegraph’s snap survey in his electorate, which revealed 60 per cent of respondents did not recognise local MP Minns.
“My middle son gives me a lot of grief about it Ray, they got The Daily Telegraph and they were plastering it around the house having a lot of fun with it unfortunately at my expense,” he told Ray Hadley during the 2GB radio show.
“Is he the one that calls you Dom? Or tells you that Dom’s a really good bloke?” Ray laughed.
“He’s the one that’s got a Dom Perrottet t-shirt that wears it around the house and down (to) the shops, yeah he’s a nightmare Ray, an absolute nightmare,” Minns responded.
“He pauses the TV when Perrottet’s on and says ‘this bloke makes a lot of sense Dad, look at him.”
The broadcaster asked Minns about The Daily Telegraph’s survey, but the politician appeared to be unfazed by the recent report.
“I know I got panned, look obviously we need to make sure that we’re getting through to as many people as possible and we’ve only got two weeks to do it.”
Questions have been raised over the profile of Labor leader Chris Minns after a remarkable 60 per cent of people surveyed in his own electorate failed to recognise him, with some identifying him as Premier Dominic Perrottet’s “opposition”.
Just two weeks out from the state election — and with Mr Minns attempting to lead Labor to victory while defending a wafer-thin margin of 0.1 per cent in his seat of Kogarah — The Daily Telegraph hit the streets.
Armed with photographs of Mr Minns and Mr Perrottet, voters were quizzed on whether they recognised either major party leader.
Outside Kogarah train station, a staggering 60 per cent of respondents did not recognise local MP Mr Minns.
Mr Perrottet was better known, with 67 per cent of voters able to name him.
In the Premier’s seat of Epping, 80 per cent of people knew their local member, while 53 per cent recognised his rival Mr Minns. The Telegraph quizzed 30 locals in each electorate.
The lack of recognition in Kogarah was seized on by party members, with a Labor MP telling The Telegraph it was “a big worry”.
“You probably might get backbenchers better recognised than (Mr Minns),” the source said.
The MP said it raised questions of whether Mr Minns was “cutting through”.
“If the people of your own electorate don’t recognise you, how will the people of the state recognise you?” the MP said.
“It’s a worry if the leader is in his own electorate and he’s not cutting through.”
Kevin Brianton, a policy and research fellow at La Trobe University, conceded it was a “desperate worry” for Mr Minns if he was struggling to get recognised in his own electorate. He pointed to viewers switching to streaming services rather than flicking on the news on TV each night as a reason for the nosedive in recognition.
“(Mr Minns is) really up against it. We’re no longer in a situation where people are watching evening news – they’re watching one of 10 streaming services. The old-fashioned way of getting something into the news … is greatly diminishing.
“If you’re not seeing the TV, then how do you see the Opposition Leader? You might hear them on radio … but seeing them on TV has greatly diminished.”
He said people “not recognising the Premier is pretty amazing.”
Mr Brianton said there was a worldwide trend driven by social media of people “cocooning” themselves from things they were not interested in — like state politics.
“We are reaching a period of what’s called social cocooning — basically we’re getting information about things that enforce our beliefs … we pick the information we like, so if we’re not interested in the state government, they don’t see it,” he said.
Mr Minns declined to comment on the figures, but earlier this month said he was not taking his own electorate for granted as he attempted to lead Labor to victory.
“It’s going to be a big challenge in my seat and many other seats across the state. I’ve always been honest about that,” he said.
“Kogarah, more often than not, has been a marginal electorate, but I love my community.
“I’ve only ever lived in the St George area. I went to school there. We live there. My kids go to school there.
“I’ll leave the verdict up to the people of Kogarah as to who they want to be their local member of parliament.”
A Coalition spokesman took a shot at the Labor leader, while declining to comment on Mr Perrottet’s own figures, saying: “Labor and Chris Minns haven’t done the work to provide any real plan or policies so it’s not surprising that he’s failing to cut through with his own constituents”.
Kogarah resident Glen Heath did not recognise either leader when shown their pictures, but said he would be voting Labor anyway.
“It’s just time for a change,” he said.
In West Epping, Greg Anderson, 52, said he was a “huge supporter” of the Premier.
“You see him every now and then at some of the cafes around here, he’s always very polite and approachable from what I’ve seen,” he said.
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