Bird flying high with electorate’s loyalty

SHARON Bird has told the Wollongong and Northern Leader that she finds encouragement in her party's ongoing popularity in the local area.

Long known as an ALP stronghold, Cunningham stuck to its guns – and then some – on the weekend, with a swing of almost 13 percent towards the Labor candidate and reigning Federal member.

Ms Bird was chosen as the number one preference for the electorate by 53 per cent of voters with just over 80 percent of votes counted.

This left her towering over local Liberal candidate Colin Fowler, who, although the closest contender for the seat, only managed to snare an unimpressive 26 per cent of those counted votes.

The other contender to put a dent in the local numbers was The Greens’ Michael Organ.

Mr Organ was the MP for Cunningham for a two-year stint from 2002-2004 and trailed on about 15 per cent of first preference votes with 80 per cent counted.

Ms Bird said on Monday that having a Labor government in power federally would allow her to push ahead with plans to complete the Maldon-Dombarton Railway link.

She said she suspects local schools and hospitals will benefit from the change of government and intends to continue to try and tackle the issue of teenage unemployment in the area.

Meanwhile, both the Greens and Liberals have said they will be expecting big things of Ms Bird in her next term.

Mr Fowler said Ms Bird would need to deliver results to match the support shown to her by voters.

“The electorate has delivered her mandate to get some results and I'd be expecting her to follow through with that mandate,” Mr Fowler said, adding that he wanted to see Ms Bird “work harder” over the next three years to “repay the support”.

Greens candidate Michael Organ said now that Ms Bird is part of the government in power he will expect to see immediate action on teenage unemployment and education.

Within the 80 percent of votes counted on Monday there was a 4.8 percent swing away from the Greens in Cunningham.