After 47 years, Eden-Monaro is no longer a bellwether seat.
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While Labor’s Mike Kelly won the seat in the recent federal election, the Liberals will form government leaving him a member of the opposition.
Dr Kelly said he was deeply moved by the support of the Bega Valley community, although the election’s final result was “disappointing in a sense” as Labor’s climate change action plan was an incredibly important piece of work, particularly for Eden-Monaro.
The member elect said he had one of the hardest working campaigns in the country, with stalls, door knocking and he claims to have made about 6000 personal calls to voters in the lead up to the election.
But he put down the main reason for his success at the ballot box to his record as Member for Eden-Monaro from 2007-2013.
“Whatever people thought of me, most would acknowledge I worked really hard as local member,” he said.
“It really set up a contrast between myself and my successor.”
In the recent election, Dr Kelly had a swing of 6.34 per cent on first preferences and emerged the victor over the Liberals’ Peter Hendy.
Dr Kelly has previously described Dr Hendy, who won the 2013 election, as a unicorn – heard of but never seen.
He said his defeated opponent did not attend candidate forums during the election campaign, despite being the only candidate for Eden-Monaro being paid to be at them.
“There’s a long tradition of members being part of the community,” Dr Kelly said.
“During Peter Hendy’s time, the feeling was that this unwritten contract had been broken.”
He said the reason he lost the election in 2013 was due to the Labor party’s leadership issues at the time.
“People were telling us to go away and get our house in order, and we did that.”
Dr Kelly said last year’s “circus” around Malcolm Turnbull ousting Tony Abbott as prime minister was disheartening to Liberal members and many personally had told him they voted Labor for the first time after noting to Dr Hendy’s role in the leadership spill.
A Liberal source close to the Hendy campaign said Labor's claim Medicare would be privatised – unfounded on current Liberal policy and repeatedly rejected by Malcolm Turnbull – was shameless.
"The reason we lost is two things: the ‘Mediscare’ campaign – the most fallacious lie I've seen in a campaign without a doubt – as well as a removal of the buffer of Tumbarumba and Batlow because of the council mergers," he said.