Evan Hughes: ALP Candidate for Wentworth, and why I’m voting informal. Again.

There is nothing I hate more in politics than the empty shirt. The candidate running as ‘a favour for the party’ or because they think politics is a good gig. The privileged, out-of-touch, ALP candidate for Wentworth Evan Hughes appears to be running for both those reasons and not hiding it.

Evan Hughes is the son of art great Roy Hughes, and has traded on his Dad’s lifetime of work and epic service to the art world, as well as the convenience of taking on the PM, to get him the press so far received. (His ego seems to want to offer to do stunts though in a bizarre Xenephon like trait.) And hey, it’s his business if he wants to leave the art career gifted to him and then go into finance, and then just four years later flip in to politics, switching careers as often as various news items indicate he switched schools. (This AFR story is I think supposed to make us feel sad that during the recession he had to leave International Grammar to go to Woollahra Public before later going to Cranbrook.)

But if you want my vote you have to mean to represent me, not just be screwing around because you are clearly so bored with your over privileged life that closing daddy’s gallery and pissing on the art world wasn’t enough destruction and now you want to ‘play’ politics. Or to quote the AFR article’s more nuanced take, “someone trying on the political coat”.

The notion that someone honestly considered feedback on their Facebook page about being too negative as either reason to run (?) or a shaping influence on their campaign is farcical in the extreme. As one look at his fairly new Twitter feed — dominated by sarcastic, typical student politician like slagging of Liberals and retweets, or his marginally better Facebook page, or the whole thrust of his ‘I Miss Malcolm’ campaign, would tell… that line is clearly BS and he hasn’t taken it on board. This News article indicates there may was also an older or perhaps personal feed with a penis fixation and a possibly misogynistic hatred of Kristina Keneally.

Certainly, he has said absolutely nothing of substance or depth despite the numerous lengthy interviews most candidates never get. A comparison of the interviews and you’ll see he has a bloody stump speech. The same lines on his ALP profile page and website home page, is identical this ABC 7.30 article (as well as echoed in many other articles, including the above linked AFR). Watch the video from about the 4.20 mark to see how he stops, adjusts his seat, and delivers the prepared totally BS pitch.

While I would always encourage a candidate to have a solid answer on why they are running, if it begins with a negative — e.g. “you don’t go into politics for any flippant reasons” — that usually means the candidate has done exactly that, and whatever comes next is just a pile of drivel to try and mask their less than genuine intentions in asking for your vote. When those reasons are about him and his kids and me me me me me …. clearly no one from the party cares enough to do any work with him — nor have they bothered enough with his condescending, childish, ‘I miss Malcolm’ website to correct the fact that the ‘authorised by’ tag is incomplete (must be a full street address where the authorising person can ordinarily be found, it is missing the number) and thus in breach of electoral law. As are his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, none of which have ‘authorised by’ information at all.

Speaking of addresses, it also didn’t escape my notice that he hasn’t bothered to open a campaign office in the electorate, his address being his existing offices in Surry Hills. He has some videos and photos on social media about the Bondi Beach Pavilion and local councils, but nothing on his website explaining what those issues are or his position on them: his website just has three incredibly generic, not at all made relevant to Wentworth, boring as whitewashed walls paragraphs on climate change, marriage equality and childcare & education. The ‘Make Point Piper Great Again’ hats? That’s a joke — a pisstake on Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ and more evidence that this spoilt brat doesn’t take me, my electorate or my vote seriously.

Mr Hughes lunch with the AFR cost $243. (This is not an interview he hides, BTW, it is the only one linked from his website.) I am a voter in Wentworth, and I don’t have $243 leftover each fortnight after I pay rent. This guy is the *Labor* candidate and couldn’t be more out of touch if he tried, making it too hard to vote for him if I wanted to.

Yes, there are many phenomenally wealthy people in Wentworth. There is also extreme poverty — and I don’t mean pensioners like me, there’s people far worse than me. St Vincent’s Hospital may have been redistricted out of Wentworth and into Sydney at this election but the start of Kings Cross ER is still pretty accurate… in amongst the highest concentration of Sydney’s wealthy and elite are also Sydney’s poorest and homeless, and everything in between. The homelessness around Bondi is always visible — there’s always people sleeping in the caves at the beach. There’s always people sleeping in the mall at the Junction. As there are around Centennial Park. And Paddington. And Edgecliff. There’s a good number of emergency housing places and soup kitchens dotted throughout the electorate too that I’m sure the erstwhile candidate is blissfully unaware of, all of which struggle to deal with demand.

Overcrowding is also significant issue, especially in two specific populations: The first group is backpackers, who have a tendency to pack in to apartments in the area well above the numbers that should be in such apartments… I was having a conversation with a Paddo resident the other day about how the Brazilian (or maybe other South Americans? The ones in my building and her building are Brazilian anyway) backpackers seem to push it that step further than others going to about 10 or 12 people living in a 2 bedroom apartment rather than usual 6 or so. (As an aside, the backpacker residents also cause havoc with the market by causing a huge vacancy in the winter months — there’s over 200 vacant 2 bedroom apartments listed online in the Bondi area alone today — I’m not sure if that will get better or worse with the so-called backpacker tax, if someone knowledgeable would like to have a bash at that, I’d be interested in reading it.)

The second is the Jewish community, always a significant voter block in Wentworth, spanning from quite literally the wealthiest Australians (hi Mr Triguboff, Mr Lowy) to people that will probably be dependent on welfare their entire lives. The more observant Jews feel the need to live in the Eruv as part of their observance… and they also tend towards large families (it is a mitzvah/commandment to have Jewish children), sometimes multiple generations or families living together because of the cost. I have personally visited with many families with 3 or 4 children in 2 bedroom apartments, or 6 children or 4 children plus grandparents in not particularly large 3 bedroom homes. I have friends who are members of families 12 and 17 children respectfully, and grew up in normal size homes in the area. The families in one bedroom apartments where they had the kids in a sunroom, or perhaps they all slept in the same room, and indeed one family of four (a single parent and three children) in a studio probably bothered me the most.

Someone with this guy’s ego will find it difficult to find a reasonable audience with the Jewish community. They are beautiful people, and so open and willing to hear an argument, with many forums and dinners to participate in. They do not vote conservative as a block despite any preconceptions: many are swinging voters, genuinely enjoying the mental exercise of evaluating the situation, the choice, applying the lifetime of talmudic training in weighing up the options and likely outcomes; many are also die-hard ALP voters. If one seriously wants to represent Wentworth, they need to sit at a shabbat table or three: the Jewish community have numerous particular concerns and issues… and no, not just Israel, although they will want to know where he stands on that and a pro-forma response won’t cut it. The community has issues right here in Wentworth from the above mentioned poverty and housing; to automating pedestrian signals at traffic lights on shabbat; to anti-semitism and violence, including recent examples of people — including children — being beaten in the electorate simply for being Jewish; to domestic violence which has unique problems within the community; to sexual abuse of children at their religious schools; to corruption and dispute within their community such as warring kashrut authorities, rabbis ripping off members of the community and concerns about the Beit Din. But Turnbull has been working with them for years, knows a good smattering of yiddish, and knows to go to them with humility and respect. Humility and respect I suspect are beyond Mr Hughes.

There are many other local and important issues affecting voters in Wentworth, just as there are in any electorate. Any candidate not willing to address them, who is treating the election as a joke, as a bit of fun to fill their obviously bored and unfufilled life, should not be permitted to run let alone endorsed by a major party. I really like the 100 positive policies, I like much of what Labor is offering — aside from the stupidity of refusing to reverse the position on asylum seekers and close Nauru and Manus immediately — but I’ll never vote for this fool.

I voted Australian Democrat in my first election after turning 18 and joined the party shortly thereafter. I voted Democrat or Independent in every election until 2004. The last decade has been torture, but I will not give my vote to unworthy people. So informal it is. Again.