The majority of the Greek Australian candidates running in the New South Wales election next weekend are women.
The NSW state election next Saturday, March 25, coincides with the anniversary of the 1821 Greek Revolution. While there is no chance that the election will be as bloody as the Greek Revolution, there is a chance that the LNP government may lose its grip on power in the face of a refreshed Labor.
The Greek Australians running for the Legislative Assembly are:
– Stephen Kamper, for Labor, for the seat of Rockdale.
– Sophie Cotsis, for Labor in the seat of Canterbury.
– Eleni Marie Petinos, with the Liberals, in the seat of Miranda.
– Fiona Douskou, with the Liberals, in the seat of Newtown.
– Izabella Angelyn Antoniou, for the Greens for the seat of Summer Hill.
– Panayiota Domna Giannakis, with the Informed Medical Options Party, in the seat of Cronulla.
– Angela Mary Ketas, for the Informed Medical Options Party, in the seat of Port Stephens.
And, Courtney Houssos will run for a seat in the Legislative Council (Legislative Council – Upper House), with the Labor Party.
The NSW voters decide whether the Coalition will continue to lead Australia’s most populous state under the stewardship of premier Dominic Perrottet, or whether Labor led by Chris Minns will form government.
Political strategist Kosmos Samaras writing for Neos Kosmos this week highlighted the cost of housing and rent as a defining element in the NSW election.
Samaras wrote that the “last time NSW Labor won a state election, the median three-bedroom house price was just under $500,000, and at the top end, about 10 times the annual median income of a Sydney resident.”
“Today, nearly 16 years later, you will not get much change out of $1 million and for many Sydney residents, they are sitting on mortgages that are 15 times their annual income.”
Samaras believes that seats held by NSW Labor represent “the most favourable demographic characteristics they could wish for, once you venture into seats like Oatley, Winston Hills and even the ultra-marginal seat of East Hills, the demographic landscape for Labor is riddled with potholes and obstacles.”
Parramatta, he writes is “a massive exception” with the highest number of renters out of any NSW state seat. The pollster believes that this fact “coupled with high levels of diversity has opened up a large gate for Labor to pass through and secure the seat.”
Further out, Penrith with fewer renters, and less diversity is “not the seat that Labor once used to hold at the turn of the 20th century.”
In the crucial seat of Penrith, the Liberal Party is hanging on, just. Their biggest threat is One Nation, who will be “cannibalising votes on the Liberal Party’s right flank.”
In 2019, only 25 per cent of One Nation voters did not exhaust their vote in Penrith. Of that, only 14 per cent ended up flowing back to the Liberal Party.
Regardless of the favourable demographics in many Labor seats and a slightly dazed and worn state government, the election will be a close one, with hand-to-hand battle in many marginal seats.
Gambling sites like Ladbrokes are predicting a Labor victory at miserly odds of 1:20, and the Coalition at 4.50 odds. Of course, the Greens have about as much hope of forming government as they do elsewhere, none, at 101 odds.
