The voters of Eden-Monaro have made some decisive calls in the election giving an overall swing against the previous Liberal member, Peter Hendy, of 6.43 per cent, considerably larger than the 3.71 per cent swing against the Liberal government, nationally.
Locally there is little joy to be gleaned from the figures for Liberal Party members. On a two candidate preferred basis, and with all but the Pambula booth counted, Dr Kelly had 42,567 votes to Dr Hendy’s 36,966 votes.
Overall Bega recorded a swing of 7.31`per cent against Dr Hendy with Bega Central polling booth producing a 10.43 per cent swing.
Bemboka voters showed their feelings with a 7.16 per cent swing against Dr Hendy while Bermagui was 4.46 per cent.
Even the traditional Liberal heartlands around Merimbula and Tura Beach showed their displeasure.
Bimbimbie recorded an 11.37 per cent swing and Merimbula Public School polling booth a 5.43 per cent swing.
Despite polling more votes in Tura Beach - 797 to Mike Kelly’s 679 - Dr Hendy exceeded the national average swing against the Liberal Coalition with 4.28 per cent.
It was a similar story in Eden where Dr Hendy polled 906 votes to Dr Kelly’s 854 but it translated to a 8.08 per cent swing against him, against a backdrop of the Eden Wharf development.
Tanja’s swing was a relatively small one at 1.64 per cent but the polling booth traditionally has a very strong Greens vote which overrides the two major parties.
In Towamba there was a 12.53 per cent swing against Dr Hendy but with a total of 134 formal votes cast, it does not take many people to change their votes for a large increase to show up.
Candelo and Cobargo both recorded swings just over 6 per cent while Wolumla had a swing of 9.91 per cent and Wyndham a swing of 6.69 per cent.
All Queanbeyan polling booths except two, Queanbeyan and Queanbeyan Central, recorded swings against Mr Hendy, although most were more modest swings than in local areas of the electorate which is probably due to the prevailing Labor vote in Queanbeyan.
