The ugly and strange moments from the 2019 NSW election campaign
The battle to win over voters has been fraught with incidents big and small. Candidates have been heckled, posters vandalised and even a dog had their say during a particularly odd day on the trail. This is how the NSW election campaign turned ugly.
Ugly and weird moments are part and parcel of any election campaign and the 2019 NSW election campaign has been no different.
The battle to win over voters has been fraught with incidents big and small since official campaigning began. Candidates have been heckled, posters vandalised and even a dog had their say during a particularly odd day on the trail.
Tensions and each incident appears to be swaying voters with The Daily Telegraph revealing in an exclusive YouGov/Galaxy poll that the major parties are deadlocked 50-50 two-party preferred.
Here are all the ugly and weird moments from this month on the hustings:
MAN HOSPITALISED AFTER POSTER FRACAS
One of the more ugly moments this campaign led to the hospitalisation of a man after an altercation outside Maroubra Bowling Club.
The pensioner, identifying himself only as Dave, told 2GB’s Ben Fordham he suffered two broken ribs while trying to remove a campaign poster following a confrontation with three Labor figures, including two of Opposition Leader Michael Daley’s brothers, on Friday night.
In a police witness statement, one man believed to be one of the brothers, said the trio had been putting up posters on Mons Ave about 9.30pm when a man walked towards them and said “I’ve got a Liberal party function here tomorrow, take the f***ing thing down or I will”.
According to the statement, the man fetched a pair of garden shears and approached the trio again.
Dave told 2GB that as a result of trying to take down the Labor sign he suffered two broken ribs, a small fracture to his chest, a badly bruised sternum and a bruised liver before being taken to Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick.
It is understood Dave used a ladder while attempting to take down a Labor sign on a pole.
“I was hobbling towards the pole with my ladder and the main person jumped out in front of me,” he claimed on radio before saying the ladder then hit him in the face.
“I’ve got marks all over my face from it,” he said.
“Then the other two came around behind him, jumped on the ladder.”
Dave said he “smashed my head in the back of the concrete”.
Peter and Paul Daley were not violent during the incident.
Liberal candidate for Maroubra Pat Farmer told The Southern Courier he was planning to have his post-election party at the Maroubra Bowling Club on Saturday night.
Club management informed him that one of their volunteer chefs had allegedly been injured while trying to stop three men from putting up Michael Daley election posters.
“His grounds for stopping them putting the signs up is that we are having our function there on Saturday night and we thought it might add a bit to the angst of the place … the function may be cancelled now, we don’t have a chef.”
“All members of political parties are supposed to unite communities, not divide them,” Mr Farmer, the former Macarthur federal Liberal MP, said.
Mr Farmer said some of his election signs had been taken down but “this sometimes happened in campaigns”.
“I wouldn’t condone that behaviour from anybody, not from my guys, not from anybody. At the end of the day we are supposed to be statesmen.”
LIBERAL POSTERS VANDALISED IN CARLINGFORD
Police are still searching for a man who was caught on security cameras destroying hundreds of Parramatta Liberal MP Geoff Lee’s election posters.
Videos captured on March 3 show the man hiding to avoid a passing motorist before he tosses an election poster over a fence at Carlingford.
The next evening, a resident’s CCTV footage shows the same person shaking and pulling a campaign poster out of a front yard on Moseley Street.
Mr Lee said he believed the same man had also vandalised his campaign van at North Parramatta last week.
The MP claims up to 20 of his campaign posters were being destroyed a night across the Parramatta electorate.
“This is the ugly side of politics and it’s very sad that someone would be routinely doing this.
DOMINIC PERROTTET HECKLED: “YOU’RE IDIOTS”
Dominic Perrottet came under fire from an angry, disenchanted local in Sydney’s south west on Wednesday.
Wendy Archer, wearing a shirt emblazoned with “I love this guy”, confronted the NSW Treasurer after a press conference in a shopping centre, telling Mr Perrottet she ripped up her electoral notice because she doesn’t trust or know any candidates.
“All these posters, who are they? I don’t know them,” she said.
“It’s just ridiculous”.
“The only time I see politicians is during elections. You don’t come knocking on my door to see what’s going on in my neighbourhood. Why?”
Ms Archer slammed Mr Perrottet’s remarks about NSW having a “strong, stable government” as “laughable”, telling him she wouldn’t vote for anyone on Saturday because “you’re all a bunch of idiots”.
“You’re only there to line your pockets.”
DOG RIPS UP LABOR PLACARD DURING INTERVIEW
NSW Labor leader Michael Daley was joined on the campaign trail earlier this month by Ellie the golden retriever, who happily posed with a Labor placard in her mouth … before ripping it up in front of the cameras.
After announcing he would hire an additional 5,065 teachers over the next four years at Lapstone Public School, Mr Daley was coaxed into a series of photos with the adorable dog.
Ellie started strong with a big smile but quickly lost patience with the time the media was taking to get its footage, promptly ripping up the placard.
“We waited thirty seconds too long taking the pictures,” Mr Daley said with a laugh.
NSW looks to force private health insurers to pay a higher levy
The Minns Government and private health insurers have escalated their fight over hospital funding into an all-out brawl, while the NSW Treasurer admits Mike Baird got it right 10 years go.
Sydney faces days of rain, power restored to thousands of homes
Sydney is bracing for more storms after severe weather brought lightning, large hailstones, and heavy rain, leaving thousands without power.