Labor claims victory in Kiama byelection

Labor has claimed victory in the Kiama byelection, winning the seat vacated by convicted rapist Gareth Ward.

A win for Labor’s Katelin McInerney, the frontrunner, is a feat not seen in NSW since 1996 – the flipping of a seat in a byelection that goes for, rather than against, the government.

While preference flows will change the final count, the disastrous result for the Liberals means leader Mark Speakman’s position could be in jeopardy.

By 9.30pm, the primary vote count had Labor on 37 per cent with the Liberals on 26 per cent.

Liberal Serena Copley conceded just before 8.30pm.

“Where do we go from here? We could go around that corner there, curl up in a foetal position, rock backwards and forwards and feel sorry for ourselves,” Speakman told downtrodden supporters.

“But we are fighters, we are Liberals and we will stick to our values.”

Members of Speakman’s party speaking anonymously this week told the Herald a primary result of anything less than 30 per cent of the vote would most likely be the death knell of his leadership.

McInerney was greeted by an ecstatic and relieved crowd of Labor volunteers and MPs at the Albion Park Bowling Club on Saturday night.

“Today many people of this electorate voted for the NSW Labor team for the very first time, and many people voted Labor for the first time in a long time,” she said.

Premier Chris Minns said the result was an “invitation to work even harder for the entire state”.

On Friday, Speakman brushed off the “mischief-makers” in his party and insisted the Liberals were always the underdogs in the byelection.

Ward wrestled Kiama for the Liberals in 2011, but instead of sticking with the party, he was returned as an independent candidate in the 2023 election. Expelled from the party when charged with sexual abuse offences, Ward resigned in August after his conviction.

“He did a lot of good for the community, especially up this way with the Albion Park bypass,” said Mark Thornett, a Bomaderry resident who was a Ward voter but on Saturday chose McInerney.

Kiama resident Judy Carr said she voted for Ward in 2023 to “give him the benefit of the doubt”. She said she was disappointed and disillusioned by his conduct, and was looking at candidates who would fight against “overdevelopment”.

Climate 200-backed independent Kate Dezarnaulds believed a Labor victory was likely, but said her community would be better served by an independent. Late on Saturday evening, Dezarnaulds had received just over 10 per cent of the vote.

She said Ward was “responsive, he was independently minded, he was hard-working, he was available, and he could actually speak up on behalf of the community on issues that were not necessarily major party policies”.

“So the community wants to be able to retain those qualities in their new member. They’re not going to get that if they elect somebody from the major parties.”

Ward is behind bars awaiting his sentencing hearing on September 19. On Saturday, as his one-time constituents voted for their new member, Ward’s home in Meroo Meadow was open for inspection.

Ward bought it shortly after his election victory in 2011. It was quietly put up for sale last month after his conviction for sexually abusing two younger men.

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