“People aren’t happy,” he said. “People feel like the country’s going in the wrong direction.
“They are worried about the cost of living. Energy prices they’re worried about.”
Morrison, who also handed out how-to-vote cards on Saturday, said Kennedy would do a “terrific job” in federal parliament.
“It’s been a great pleasure to serve the shire and southern Sydney for so long. But I can tell you, if you support Simon today, you’re putting our electorate of Cook in very, very safe hands,” Morrison said in a video posted to social media.
In January, Morrison announced he would leave politics for the corporate world, and used his final speech in parliament in February to extol Western values and religion and warn of the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.
Morrison retained the seat in the 2022 election with a safe 12.4 per cent margin, and Labor decided not to contest the byelection, which meant Kennedy faced five minor party and independent opponents, including representatives from the Greens and the Animal Justice Party.
Kennedy declined to comment on Labor’s decision not to run a candidate, but said he was focused on showing all voters “that I’ll work my guts out to listen to them and work for them”.
“I’ve been out there listening – listening to people and I think that’s what people want,” he said. “They want their local MP to listen to them and advocate hard.”
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s poll, Kennedy said he was focused on getting to the heart of the pressures – cost of living or otherwise – in the electorate.
“For me, the focus right now is on Cook and the people of Cook and understanding their issues,” he said, listing road congestion, restoring the water quality at Gymea Bay baths, and changing the availability of MRI machines at St George hospital.
Alice Tiller said she planned to vote for the Greens candidate when she could take a break from selling cakes and slices at Burraneer Bay’s cake stall.
Describing herself as “a bit of a swing voter”, Tiller said she was surprised and disappointed that Labor did not contest the byelection.
Asked if she would have voted for a Labor candidate, she said: “Yes, I would have as the first choice.”
Greg Rhodes supported Kennedy on the basis of his family values, but would have contemplated voting for Labor if it had run a candidate.
Rhodes said local issues such as traffic congestion, population growth and overdevelopment were important issues to him.
Rhodes said the former prime minister came across as a decent bloke, but he was not sure if he would vote for him. “I think it’s a shame that guys that seem to do well in their local area, when they go into federal politics, all of a sudden they appear to look like nuff nuffs,” he said.
Ben Williams voted for independent candidate Roger Woodward but would have voted differently had there been the option to vote Labor.
Williams said having kids had changed the issues that he regarded as important. “I’m traditionally a Liberal voter, however I’ve changed my perspective in the last couple of years,” he said. “I definitely came into this looking for a Labor candidate and not seeing one there did change my priorities.”
Williams said his move away from the Liberal party was also influenced by his low regard for the former Cook MP and prime minister.
“I don’t have a high opinion of Scott Morrison,” he said. “I think his decisions in some of the crises over the past number of years were poor ones and it definitely influenced my opinion of the party as a whole.”
Declan Hitchcock voted for the Greens but was critical of Labor’s failure to run a candidate.
“I think it’s a bit pathetic not to put anyone up,” he said. “They could have given me $10 and a six pack of Fireball and I would have run.”
“Obviously it’s very Liberal but I don’t know how they can expect any change if they don’t provide any opportunity for it to happen.”
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Source Agencies
