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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Mayo By-Election

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:16): I rise today to congratulate Rebekha Sharkie on her wonderful win last weekend in the Mayo by-election. It was a tremendous win. Interestingly enough, it followed on from the loss at the previous general election of Jamie Briggs, who had been installed by the Downer family. The headline in TheCourier in Mount Barker last week, after a poll came out, said that Georgina Downer was more unpopular than Jamie Briggs. Now, that is a pretty hard headline to get and it takes a fair bit of work because Jamie was not very well liked anywhere in the electorate. I do not think that he was that well liked even within the Liberal Party because he was quite offensive to people.

I guess it was a lesson in how you should go about your politics if you want to be a good local member and a good candidate. Rebekha Sharkie has worked tirelessly as the federal member for Mayo. I know people on Kangaroo Island, in Yankalilla, McLaren Vale and Willunga who speak—

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr BIGNELL: —very, very highly of Rebekha Sharkie and the work that she has done. I am getting some interjections from people across the other side. One of the interesting points that Georgina Downer made in her speech on Saturday night was that she thanked the state Liberal MPs in the area for all their help to get her to where she got to. Well, it was not a great spot to end up. It looks like she is putting her hand up again to go around. I wish her well.

I have to say that the people have spoken this time in the way they came out and have been relating to both of these candidates, Rebekha and Georgina, and in the poll results. I think Georgina may have won about six or seven booths across the whole electorate. People wanted to go for a candidate who had a proven track record in their area, not someone who moved in from Victoria and wanted to count on the family name.

Alexander Downer, who was the member for Mayo for 24 years, who served the country as the foreign affairs minister for a record length of time and who was the federal leader of the Liberal party at one stage, did not do Georgina any favours and probably not his own legacy any favours either by the way he carried on. Georgina Downer and her team were sending abusive messages to people on social media that we did not ask for. I was getting all this stuff. They were abusing Rebekha Sharkie, saying that she had voted with Bill Shorten this many times and all these things. There were all these made up things that they were sending out to people like me.

I do not follow Georgina Downer on social media, but the Downers themselves—Georgina's mum and dad—had to answer some questions in the chat group that they went into to pick a fight. Well, they came out very upset with the reaction that they received in there, with Alexander Downer saying, 'I agree with my wife.' He probably had a posher accent than this. He said:

We are Adelaide Hills people and been in politics here for decades and through multiple elections never come across such abuse. Sharkie supporters have brought horrible hate to our district. Never seen this before. You must all be new arrivals.

We go back to the 2001 federal election with the made up stuff about babies being thrown overboard and all the stuff that was repulsive about that federal Liberal government. Alexander Downer, of course, was a part of that. As to all this talk about new arrivals, the only new arrival that we had here was his daughter Georgina. She had come back after 20 years of living in Victoria.

I sent her a new elector letter last week, as I do for all new electors who enrol in the seat of Mawson. I was a bit confused, though, because it was sent to her mum and dad's beach house at Carrickalinga, yet she had told a forum the week before that she lived in the Adelaide Hills at Heathfield. There were more holes in Georgina Downer's story than in a teabag. Nobody could actually work out who she was. One thing you have to do is actually get your story right. You have to be a local person—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr BIGNELL: —not rely on who your great-grandaddy was, who your grandaddy was or who your daddy was. You actually have to get out there and be a member of the community and do the work. I congratulate all the candidates who put up their hand for Mayo, like Reg Coutts, who ran for the ALP. Again, I congratulate—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr BIGNELL: —Rebekha Sharkie on her outstanding win and I look forward to working with her.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr BIGNELL: I see that Georgina Downer—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hammond!

Mr BIGNELL: —is putting her hand up for Liberal Party preselection again. She is the Andrew Ucles of Australian politics. If you do not know who Andrew Ucles is, google 'Andrew Ucles' and 'bull ant nest' and see what it is like to put your hand up to suffer pain when you know what the result is going to be.

The SPEAKER: The member's time has expired.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: What a joke.

The SPEAKER: Deputy Premier, please. The member for King.

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