Manpower: Australian Metal Workers Union’s Jason Hefford at the Echuca polling booth in Anstruther St on Monday, with the free T-shirts promoting Labor’s support of ‘Aussie Made’ products.
The Australian Labor Party’s presence at the Nicholls electorate polling booths for the May 21 federal election is greater than at any time in recent memory as, for the first time, the Coalition stronghold is being touted as an ‘uncertain’ seat.
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Nicholls certainly wouldn’t qualify — at least not based on recent history — as marginal, but the presence of independent Rob Priestly, a Liberal candidate standing against the Nationals and the return of Labor candidate Bill Lodwick has created an abundance of interest in the seat.
Jason Hefford, who was manning the Echuca pre-polling booth in Anstruther St on Monday, said this was the first time he could remember Labor having volunteers at all of the pre-polling booths in Nicholls — even if one of those was the candidate himself.
Mr Lodwick was at the pre-polling booth in Cobram, while Mr Hefford was handing out free T-shirts outside the St Mary’s parish hall in Echuca.
The Support Aussie Made T-shirts are an Australian Metal Workers Union initiative, of which Mr Hefford is the national secretary.
Mr Hefford said the ALP had always been “light on the ground’’ in Nicholls, but this year the numbers of volunteers had allowed a greater presence.
Mr Lodwick polled 19.4 per cent of the vote at the 2019 election, well behind retiring Federal Member for Nicholls Damian Drum (51 per cent), and the close nature of this year’s election will make him a player in 2022.
Also of significant interest is the allocation of preferences from the Labor party, as high profile independent Rob Priestly challenges the Coalition for the seat in parliament.
