Jewish battlegrounds decided
WHILE the next government is yet to be decided, a number of Jewish MPs were successful on polling day.
WHILE the next government is yet to be decided, a number of Jewish MPs were successful on polling day.
Despite a strong swing to The Greens in Melbourne Ports, home to around 20,000 Jewish voters, Labor’s Michael Danby held on for the fifth time. In Wentworth, with a similar number of Jewish voters, Liberal Malcolm Turnbull was given a resounding endorsement to continue as the local member.
In the leafy inner-eastern Melbourne seat of Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg made history by becoming the first Jewish Liberal MP in Canberra. Declaring his win before an audience of hundreds of friends and party faithful, Frydenberg said he was proud to have been elected as only the seventh ever member of the 110 year-old seat.
“We have won Kooyong and we can win win government tonight,” he said, after thanking his family and campaign team for their support.
Labor incumbent Mark Dreyfus increased his support in the Melbourne southern bayside seat of Isaacs.
In Melbourne Ports, Danby was satisfied with his victory, which relied on Greens’ preferences.
“Regardless of the final decision tonight, the people of Melbourne Ports can be assured we will stand up for them in Canberra,” Danby said.
“We have our own opinions here, we stand for a more cosmopolitan and pluralist Australia,” he said, referring to the strong national swing that saw Labor lose many seats.
“I don’t care what bogans and rednecks think elsewhere we stand up for it here and our opinions count as much as their’s.”
His Liberal opponent Kevin Ekendahl saw his party’s primary vote reduced in the seat.
Ekendahl had one message for Danby: “stop being complacent”
“Get out into the electorate. Start working hard,” Ekendahl said.
In the Sydney seat with the most Jewish voters, Wentworth, Liberal Malcolm Turnbull increased his majority by a whopping 11.5 per cent.
His opponent Jewish lawyer Steven Lewis said despite the defeat he had enjoyed the campaign.
“It was a great campaign. We fell short today but we had great enjoyment in what we did, we threw everything into it,” he said.
“Everyone said it was going to be a big ask, but we did the best we could given the facilities that we had.”
Lewis declined to say whether he would consider running again in the future.
“We’ll take it one day at a time,” he said. “It’s a bit too early to speculate on that right now, we’re still waiting for the [rest of the] results to come in here today.”
But he was full of thanks with those who had assisted with his campaign.
“I’ve been working with a great group of people, volunteers who have come in to help us, day in and day out. I’m surrounded by some fantastic people in the party and we’re just grateful that we did the best job we could.”
MORE TO COME
WITH NAOMI LEVIN, JOSHUA LEVI, GARETH NARUNSKY, DALIA SABLE, AHRON SHAPIRO.
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