Source : the age
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Footage has emerged showing a man removing Liberal signage from a truck that accidentally struck an early voting centre in western Sydney on Monday, shunting a roof from its supports and onto the vehicle’s cab.
The Quakers Hill Community Centre will be closed for voting on Tuesday as the truck carrying branding for the Liberal candidate for Greenway, Rattan Virk, is still wedged underneath the collapsed roof.
The chaotic start to early voting was isolated to Quakers Hill as hundreds of other polling places opened around the country, and at Australian diplomatic missions overseas, with a riot of colourful signage and how-to-vote cards rather than safety incidents.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) expects about half the country to vote before election day on May 3, making pre-poll voting a vital part of the contest and forcing many candidates to spend much of the next fortnight speaking to constituents outside polling booths.
In Malvern in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong, incumbent independent MP Monique Ryan bristled at a Sky News attempt to interview her.
“I am here to engage with voters here at pre-poll,” Ryan told Sky host Laura Jayes tersely after she asked how the campaign was progressing. “I’m not really sure that it’s ideal for you to be interrupting the process… I’ve declined an interview already.”
Ryan declined to repeat an answer given on ABC Insiders a week ago about fellow crossbench MP Allegra Spender’s admission that she paid for flattering social media posts from influencers, before a media advisor ushered Jayes away.
On the hustings in North Sydney, Liberal candidate for Warringah Jaimee Rogers told this masthead she did not believe climate change would factor as prominently in this election as in 2022, when teal MP Zali Steggall’s climate policies helped her win what had historically been a safe Liberal seat.
Instead, Rogers said the cost-of-living crisis was dominant. “Climate doesn’t seem to be one of the biggest issues when you can’t feed your family, and you’re struggling to pay for your energy prices and small business can’t keep their doors open,” Rogers said.
The Quakers Hill booth was quiet on Tuesday after the electoral commission confirmed it would be closed while it assesses the damage.
“The AEC is assessing the damage to this facility and will make a decision about whether the facility can be used or will need to be relocated in coming days,” the commission said in a statement.
A Liberal spokesman said: “Yesterday, a truck delivering materials to Quakers Hill Community Hall dislodged a portico. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this has caused for the local community.”
The spokesman did not respond directly to questions about the removal of the branding but said: “The local campaign proactively contacted the appropriate authorities and fully cooperated, following instructions when they arrived to assist at the hall.”
NSW Police went to the accident on Monday. “As the crash met the minor traffic crash criteria, police will not be making any further investigation,” a police spokesperson said.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland holds the seat of Greenway, where the damaged booth is located, on a margin of 7.9 per cent.
