Cost-of-living front of mind for voters in NSW electorate of Robertson

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Robertson on the New South Wales Central Coast is Australia's longest-running Bellwether seat voting for the winning party 15 times in-a-row.  And with the cost-of-living dominating the campaign, voters there might just have their finger on the national pulse, once again.

Transcript

00:00Look just beyond Sydney's mortgage belt and you'll find a region on the rise with a seat

00:09of Robertson at the heart of the Central Coast's population boom.

00:13Our residents deserve nothing but the best, but I do think the Central Coast too often

00:18is a little bit overlooked.

00:20We have young, we have old, we have working families, we have retirees, self-funded retirees.

00:26One of those retirees will eventually include Anthony Albanese, who purchased this $4 million

00:31home with his fiancée in Copacabana last year.

00:34But for now he's hoping to stay in the lodge, and Robertson could prove crucial.

00:39Since 1983 this bellwether seat has backed the winning party at every federal election, with

00:45the local member sitting on the government benches every parliamentary term.

00:50Now the most recent Liberal MP, Lucy Wicks, is trying to win back the seat from the Labor

00:55incumbent Gordon Reid.

00:57You hear about the things that are often in the national debate.

01:00You hear about cost of living, you hear about health care, you hear about infrastructure

01:03and energy.

01:04What bellwether seats tend to be are microcosms of the whole country in that they have a little

01:09bit of city, a little bit of country and some suburbs in the middle.

01:12The seat is usually won and lost in the diverse Peninsula pocket, and at Merrimack's, a local

01:18community kitchen, demand for help has doubled this year.

01:22My clientele used to be predominantly male, over 60.

01:26Now I'm seeing many more families, I'm going through school food much quicker.

01:32Proximity to Sydney without the Sydney prices helped drive the Central Coast population boom.

01:38But despite the number of high rise buildings springing up in the CBD, what was once considered

01:44affordable is no longer within reach for most locals.

01:47How are we supposed to be able to get ahead when we can't even find a house to have a

01:52roof over the head for our children?

01:54I'm scared of my children who are in their 30s, they can't afford a house, can't afford

02:01rent.

02:02You know?

02:03It's disgusting.

02:04It's a key issue in an ultra-marginal seat and perhaps the key to power nationwide.

02:09Walt Boyd Smith wouldn't have to be able to share a seat in the next one.

02:13This may be the other side of the sea, untiltagEM Mass Command.

02:14Ihr dirignis desecos escalates.

02:15It'll be the other side of the sea as they put the sea with a touch.

02:16If you don't pick the sea and the sea with a new shape around the sea start, so the

02:34take effects at a new speed of aviation.

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