It is unlikely the details of questionable polling booth tactics which have emerged in Gilmore this week will change the outcome or the member of parliament. But what they will do – indeed, what they have already done – is raise concerns within the Coalition about the competence of the sitting member in the most marginal seat in NSW.
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In a brief statement released on Wednesday, Ann Sudmalis said in relation to “hearsay” coverage of the alleged removal of Labor campaign material from a polling booth: “Let me make it clear that at no stage have I ever tampered with another party’s election material, nor would I ever do so.”
Mrs Sudmalis said the Australian Electoral Commission was the appropriate entity to deal with such situations. The AEC has said it won’t take the matter further. Whether the police will remains to be seen.
Mrs Sudmalis has not denied telling the party room about the polling booth incident but has said the story was anecdotal.
What is curious about the whole affair – perhaps more intriguing than the reported polling booth shenanigans - is how and why such detail from what was meant to be a confidential gathering made it into the public realm. Also strange is why Mrs Sudmalis would bring the “hearsay” to light when it is was not the subject of a public complaint.
The fact the story got out suggests internal fractures are in play within the party room and on one of those fault lines sits the Member for Gilmore, whose polling has taken the Liberal Party into marginal realms unknown when her predecessor, Shoalhaven Mayor Joanna Gash, held the seat.
Even before the election, there was internal dissent over the accident-prone MP, which came to a head over the local council amalgamation issue. Only an intervention by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull put the brakes on a move to disendorse her as the candidate after she put her name to a petition condemning the Baird government over its council merger plans.
Defeated Labor candidate Fiona Phillips has called on Mrs Sudmalis to resign, saying she has displayed a lack of competence. While there’s nothing surprising in that, what is interesting is Mrs Phillips’ focus on competence.
There is little doubt the question of competence will be uppermost in the minds of Mrs Sudmalis’s party colleagues given the paper thin margin in Gilmore. The MP has some work ahead of her to turn that perception around.
