Hello 
on a sunny Sunday morning! 
I hope that you’ve enjoyed your Sunday - I have been reading the tea leaves and here is a post campaign wrap up with some insights into how we went this time, what this means for our region for the next 18 months and where we need to build from here.
First of all - a warm congratulations to Labor’s Katelin McInerney on her strong win in yesterday’s Kiama by-election.
She is a high-quality candidate and it has been a delight to campaign alongside her.
Regardless of your political persuasion, I think as a region we can be confident with someone of her integrity and capacity representing us for the next 18 months.
For the five of us local candidates in what was a wild and wooly 13-strong field, it has been a genuinely enjoyable campaign — respectful, friendly, and focused on ideas and the needs of our community.
There are also valuable lessons here for our growing Independent for South Coast movement.
One of the most important is about voting systems: at the federal level, where compulsory preferential voting applies, it is certainly much easier for a strong independent to succeed.
By contrast, at the state level in NSW, optional preferential voting means that this weekend up to 60% of votes exhausted early— meaning preferences were not expressed or stopping before they could impact the final two-candidate count.
There is no doubt that the major parties are united in their desire to stem the threat of community-backed independents.
This time the Liberal Party recommended “just vote 1” — a strategy that ultimately has helped entrench Labor’s dominance. We now have Labor at a State and Federal level from South of Sydney to the border. That lack of diversity says far more about the current state of the Liberal party than it does the popularity of Labor‘s platform in the regions. I genuinely believe that good oppositions make for good governments and when we tip too far one way- we are well overdue a rebalancing. At the moment, the community independents movement is the best chance that we have for that rebalancing.
Another thing that affected our path this time was the flooding the ballot with minor parties and non-local independents. With no genuine prospect of success, this noise made it trickier for our community-backed, sensible-centre campaign to distinctively stand out from the crowd.
Despite those challenges, we achieved real growth this time to be really proud of. In parts of the Kiama electorate overlapping with the federal seat of Gilmore, our share of the primary vote grew by 50% in many booths from May to September.
At the booth level, we achieved:
- Jamberoo Public: 20.7%
- Gerringong RSL Hall: 17.0%
- Kangaroo Valley Hall: 16.7%
- Berry Public: 15.7%
- Werri Beach Hall: 15.2%
- Cambewarra Public: 15.1%
Across the Kiama LGA and northern Shoalhaven, we now consistently hover at around 15% of the primary vote, a super strong platform for the future.
Our scrutineers also reported that where voters did choose to use their preferences, we attracted strong second-preference support across the spectrum — from Liberal, Labor, Greens, and minor parties alike.
This foundation puts us in a strong position for the next contest — one where we will be campaigning under the protections of caretaker periods and against Labor and Liberals local branches, rather than trying to compete against the full weight of the Macquarie Street machines.
7 visits from the Premier in 3 weeks!! 
Let’s hope the focus on Kiama continues.
To all of our volunteers, donors, and behind-the-scenes supporters: THANK YOU. With just three weeks of runway, we mounted a community-driven campaign we can be proud of.
We may have fallen a few percentage points short of our goal this time, but we’ve earned our bronze medal 
learned the lessons, and built the foundations again.
In 18 months we have the opportunity to be back — stronger, more time to be organised, and ever more determined — to keep challenging the broken two-party system with genuine community-led solutions.
Politics remains too important to be left to the politicians.
It’s time to bring the sunshine!
Kate Dezarnaulds
PS - check out the great wrap up from the Tally Room - read the article