Bennelong by-election: Cory Bernardi, Fred Nile may field candidates

The field is set to widen as Fred Nile and Cory Bernardi say they won’t rule out open tickets in upcoming by-election.

Labor Leader Bill Shorten with Kristina Keneally campaigning in Bennelong, Sydney. Picture: Twitter

The Christian Democratic Party and Australian Conservatives are not ruling out “open” preference tickets for the Bennelong by-election, in a boost to Labor’s candidate Kristina Keneally.

Labor is also working to do a deal with the Greens to swap preferences in the seat, in a bid to get the 9.5 per cent swing required to unseat Liberal John Alexander and put Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership and majority in danger.

Christian Democrat Fred Nile.

Asked about the chances of the Christian Democrats recommending an “open ticket”, the party’s state leader Fred Nile said today: “That’s possible, yes.”

“There’s a lot of people unhappy with [Liberal candidate] John Alexander,” he said.

“He came out strongly in support of the same sex marriage issue and that angered a lot of conservative voters in the electorate.”

Normally the Liberal Party would expect the Christian Democrats and Australian Conservatives to recommend their voters preference Liberal above Labor.

Nominations for the by-election close at the end of Thursday.

Bennelong was one of 12 NSW federal electorates, and 17 of the 150 overall, to vote against same sex marriage in the recent national plebiscite on the issue — by a narrow margin; 50.2 per cent to 49.8 per cent.

Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi would not commit today to which way his party would preference, saying that the party was yet to formally announce a candidate but the chances of them announcing they were running on nomination day were “pretty high”.

Mr Bernardi said he would be deciding on any preference ticket and no decision had been made yet.

Australian Conservatives Senator Cory Bernardi.

“No decision’s been made,” Mr Bernardi said.

“The only person who is that decision [maker] is me.”

Mr Nile said of his view of Ms Keneally, who he served in state parliament with while she was premier, that she was “pretty ruthless as to what’s good for her career.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appeared again in Sydney this morning, at Sydney Markets at Flemington, a short distance from the electorate of Bennelong but has yet to appear yet in the seat, more than one week into the December 16 by-election campaign.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister has insisted that Mr Turnbull will appear “multiple times” in the seat during the campaign.