‘We like our member, not his boss’: Liberals blame Morrison for inner-city carnage

Wentworth MP Dave Sharma did not concede defeat on Saturday night but acknowledged he was “significantly behind” and likely to become the third sitting Sydney Liberal MP to lose his seat to a Climate 200 backed independent in a “teal bloodbath” that ran through the city’s eastern suburbs and northern beaches.

Sharma in Wentworth, Jason Falinski in Mackellar and Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney all suffered significant declines in their primary votes – double-digits in some cases – likely enough to catapult the independents Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps and Kylea Tink into federal parliament.

Independents Zoe Daniel, Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps and Kate Chaney, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Credit: Simon Schluter, Louise Kennerley, James Brickwood, Nick Moir,Tony McDonough

Sharma told the Herald there were clear lessons for the Liberal Party in the rout of moderate MPs in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne.

“We’ve lost sense of what it is to be a broad church and I think we need to rediscover that middle ground,” he said. “We’ve clearly not convinced voters in metropolitan seats that are high income, high tertiary education, that should be naturally Liberal, to go with us again.

“There are some lessons for us in that on any number of issues – climate, integrity. We’re going to have to do a pretty dramatic post-mortem after this.”

Sharma said Spender had run a good campaign but at times voters had not looked beyond her “veneer”.

“I do worry a little bit about what it means for the two-party system in Australia. I’m concerned we’re heading down a Germany model where we’ll need traffic light coalitions to form government.”

Spender arrived at Bondi Bowling Club shortly before 9pm to the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling and Aretha Franklin’s Respect. The former chief executive did not immediately claim victory, but told her hundreds of supporters the community had made its feelings clear.

The result – Sharma’s primary knocked below 40 per cent and a Spender primary of 38 per cent as of 11.30pm – was “an act of faith [and] an act of defiance”, Spender said.

“Defiance against the status quo, defiance against the cynicism. You’ve called time on the negativity. You’ve given up shouting at the television. We know what we stand for and we will stand up,” she said.

Her sister Bianca Spender told the Herald the result was a win for the Wentworth community.

“The movement of really getting people to care about the climate and feel that they can make a change, it has won. Whatever happens tonight, it will never be the same again,” she said.

“Everyone is activated and once you have an activated community you can do anything. I see huge potential and everyone in the family is beaming with pride at the energy, positivity and momentum it has created.”

Earlier, Zimmerman said there were “clearly lessons for the Liberal Party in this result” as he conceded defeat to Tink in North Sydney, a loss cabinet minister Simon Birmingham described as a “devastating blow”.

A leader of the Liberals’ moderate faction, Zimmerman copped a 15 per cent hit to his primary vote with 50 per cent of the counting completed. Labor came in third and its preferences were expected to get Tink over the line, even though her primary vote was lower than other teals.

At his post-election function Zimmerman hugged NSW Treasurer and factional co-traveller Matt Kean and asked: “Where’s the bar?”

In Mackellar, Sophie Scamps claimed victory in a surprise result after Falinski’s primary vote fell to 41 per cent in what was once Liberal heartland on Sydney’s northern beaches. Scamps polled strongly on first preferences, almost beating Falinski with 70 per cent of the vote counted.

“This is about genuinely trying to represent our community and take our voice and values to Canberra,” Scamps said on Saturday night. “We’re super excited. This is a win for democracy.”

At Sharma’s post-election shindig at Club Rose Bay, federal Young Liberal president Clark Cooley told the Herald it was “rough out there” at the booth he manned in Wentworth, with voters clear they wanted Morrison gone.

“The feedback was, ‘We love our local member, we don’t like his boss’,” Cooley said, referring to the prime minister.

“That was the feedback in North Sydney, it was the feedback in Goldstein, it was the feedback in Kooyong, it was the feedback in Brisbane. It was the same line: we like the local member but we don’t like the boss.”

Liberals who entered the Sharma event were initially ordered not to speak to the media – including elected officials, though many ignored that instruction.

NSW upper house member and former Liberal Party state executive official Chris Rath described the race for Wentworth as “incredibly close, in spite of the unpopularity of the prime minister”.

Another Liberal who did not want to be identified said party research showed as many as four in five swing voters were not prepared to vote for the Liberals this time because of Morrison.

While some Liberals held out hope that later booths, as well as prepoll and postal votes, might yet save them from defeat, the likelihood of that prospect appeared to diminish as the night wore on.

“The communities have seen through the ‘fake’ moderates,” Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court told the ABC.

“[Former prime minister John] Howard kicked out most of the moderates and Morrison kicked out the rest. The reason the Liberal Party lost these seats is because they left a great vacuum.”

Spender campaign volunteer Bobbie Stent, 64, said families at the Clovelly booth seemed to be heavily in favour of Spender but the mood was more split at Bondi Junction, with men especially likely to stick with Sharma.

“I would ask [voters] what it was that they wanted, and they went ‘Get rid of ScoMo’; they didn’t like him,” she said. “That was the main message.”

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