Buninyong reveals how it's voting ahead of Federal Election

What are young and old near the red-rusted Buninyong Primary School polling booth thinking about 2022’s looming election?

Buninyong Primary School hosts a safe Labor polling election booth in the Ballarat electorate.

The election booth at Buninyong Primary School is rusted red.

In the 2019 federal election, the booth recorded 1914 votes and helped to safely hand success to Labor’s Ballarat MP Catherine King, who was first elected in 2001 and has occupied her seat ever since.

But what is on the minds of Buninyong voters as 2022’s election looms?

Nicholas D’Ombrain has lived in the town about a year.

He and his wife have a three-year-old child and enjoy their lives in a “cool, calm area away from the hustle and bustle”.

Although his family tends to vote Labor, Mr D’Ombrain said recently he felt it was a “choice of a bad bunch”, calling his vote one for “the lesser evil”.

“Australia needs to fix a lot of their policies in a lot of areas, particularly immigration and the environment,” Mr D’Ombrain said.

“I’m kind of more likely to go Greens these days, even if it’s a minor party. Definitely Labor over Liberal.”

Buninyong resident Nicholas D’Ombrain feels his trust in Australian democracy has decreased in recent years.

Mr D’Ombrain felt that trust in Australian democracy had eroded to the point that he was uncomfortable voting for any major party.

“We love the land, but we really don’t like what’s going on in the country and it’s almost enough to make us consider leaving,” he said.

“We live in an era where people will say anything to get what they want.

“Mass marketing is the tactic. There’s no solid policies coming through that are followed through.

“Look at what was learnt from the bushfires. Look at what’s actually been done since they happened: nothing, because we got diverted with Covid, but it’s always convenient; there’s always a diversion. What do we actually care about?

“Things like the sexual harassment in Parliament: in order to make it look like they’re doing something, they’ve put in the budget $20 million for security camera upgrades in Parliament House. But guess what? Those things will still happen.”

Peter Anderson has been a resident of Buninyong for 27 years.

In 2022, he intends to vote primarily for one issue: national security.

“I’m just a bit concerned about what’s going on globally and regionally, with China moving in on the Solomons and all of that sort of stuff,” Mr Anderson said.

“Any government that concentrates on policies that make us more self-sufficient and pay attention to defence and national security would probably get my vote.”

He said that priority made it likely he would vote for the Liberals, despite him traditionally being a Labor supporter.

“That’s purely because I think the Labor Party are a bit of an unknown,” Mr Anderson said.

“I’m swinging towards the devil we know rather than the devil we don’t.”

Mr Anderson said he held Catherine King in high regard and has always voted for her, but said “Catherine’s not the government”.

Although he had no strong opinion on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, he didn’t think “he’d done such a terribly bad job”.

Mr Anderson also thought safe seats such as Ballarat generally garnered less financial attention from politicians.

Sixteen-year-old Buninyong resident Tom said he thought most of Australia’s leaders were “pretty incompetent”.

“It’s unfortunate as a political system that nothing seems to stand out as good,” he said.

“If we’re to look at the leaders of the parties, I think that ScoMo is just incompetent.

“I’ve seen videos of Scott Morrison talking to other world leaders, and they just don’t seem to connect. I think that’s a measure of him [Mr Morrison].”

Tom thought he should be allowed to vote, and repeated the American revolutionary adage: No taxation without representation.

“Sixteen-year-olds can work, therefore they can be taxed, therefore they should be able to be represented,” he said.

“I think that there should either be taxation change for under 18s or there should be a voting change.”

Another resident who wished to go unnamed said she thought the main issue in the country was the lack of housing.

“I know we like to have a free market, I appreciate all that, but in the end we have to think about the greater society, and we have too many people without housing,” she said.

“I would like to see some tax reform. It’s [current taxation] making it a very uneven society.

“I’m a bit disappointed in the current government in relation to some of the issues that have been faced by women. I don’t think it’s been taken seriously.”

The woman said she would “like to think” the Opposition would do a better job than those in power at the moment.

“That’s why we have Oppositions,” she said.

Originally published as Buninyong reveals how it's voting ahead of Federal Election