Race for Richmond: The Nationals secure maximum how-to-vote preferences with Kimberly Hone

Reporter Mia Armitage spoke with National Party of Australia federal candidate for the seat of Richmond, Kimberly Hone, on day three of pre-polling at the Jessie McMillan Hall pre-poll booth in Murwillumbah. To follow is an edited transcript.

Mia’s interviews with the incumbent, Labor’s Justine Elliot, and The Greens’ candidate Mandy Nolan are also available.

All three candidates have confirmed they’ll be at tonight’s free Richmond: Meet the Candidates forum in the Byron Theatre, brought to you by Echo Publications and Bay FM Community Radio.

Eager voters focused on change, says Nationals candidate

I’m a sitting councillor on Tweed Shire, so that’s a job that I’m really passionate about, as it’s an opportunity to serve the community and I also run a family business with my husband, doing business coaching, not fitness coaching like some people think.

Kimberly Hone, tell us about the momentum for you in this campaign compared to 2022 because we’ve heard today 1.1 million voters have already made their decisions in the booths.

Yeah, it’s been an interesting turnout. We’ve definitely had the voters turn up from the very beginning of the first day. There hasn’t been a build-up, there’s just been a constant flow of voters. So there’s definitely a sense of an eager voter out there and that’s very different compared to ’22, there seemed to be a slow start to the race and then it built up over time.

What are the voters talking to you about in particular this time?

The voters are really focused on change. They want change. They’re very concerned about the cost-of-living crisis and they don’t like the fact that they can’t find a roof, a home to live in for their family and their children.

Have they given you feedback or questions about the policies put forward by the coalition?

We haven’t had a lot of people come and ask me directly but they just express their frustration. That’s their constant, that’s the constant conversation that I’m having here. It’s still a lot of listening for me on the polling booths and hearing what people have to say. This is a very emotive campaign for a lot of people. A lot of people in our community are hurting and they’re frustrated and I think we will be surprised by the vote.

Hone credits council role for helping prove she’ll ‘be bold’

So over the past, let’s say 21 years or so, we’ll go back to 2004 since that’s when the incumbent first won the seat of Richmond for Labor. But The Nationals in that time have most often won the most number of first preference votes, 2007 was quite an exception to the rule, but you haven’t managed to get quite over the line yet. How are you feeling this time around? What are you pitching to those voters who didn’t put you in the number one spot when you want that spot this time?

Well, last time was my first campaign and the tide was going out, they say, people were unhappy with Scott Morrison, so there was that contention in the atmosphere and I was a first time candidate.

Since that time I have worked really hard to show people that I’m there for them, that I’ll fight for them, that I’m a community fighter, that I listen and that I show up, and I think I’ve proven that on Council. I’ve demonstrated to people that I’ll tackle the big issues that no one else wants to talk about. I’ll be bold, I’ll be brave, and I’ll be their voice. So I’ve made sure that I’ve built that momentum.

We’ve definitely gained momentum as The National Party here in the in the seat of Richmond, we’re gaining membership all the time as well and I’ve also made sure that I’ve garnered support from our minor and independent parties.

So back in ‘22 was the first time we had such a large amount of minor parties and independents, which kind of split the conservative vote on the right side of politics. We have that again this year but I think the momentum this time is in our favour.

Most minor parties and independents agree to preference Nats

So how much support have you managed to glean? We’ve got seven other candidates besides what we might consider the three main contenders, yourself, Labor and The Greens. I’m assuming you maybe haven’t got Legalise Cannabis on board but how are you going with those arrangements for preferences on the how-to-vote cards?

I’ve secured preferences from all of our minor and independent parties, apart from the Cannabis party. Back in ‘22 that was exactly the same and after the primaries were distributed, and the preferences were then distributed from those minor independent parties, I was the first in line, I was above Justine and I was above Mandy and it was only when The Greens preferences were distributed that Justine got in.

So it really does come down to preferences here in Richmond, I think it will come down to preferences even more so this election, I think it’s going to be a very, very tight race, and we’ll have to wait and see.

You said that the membership has increased for The Nationals in the seat of Richmond. How many members are there now?

Officially in this area, we’ve got about 300 members in our area, and that’s growing every day. We’ve picked up quite a few over the campaign as well, as people learn to find out, as they learn what we stand for and what we’re fighting for and as they learn about me and they meet me, and they get to see me and they think, you know what, that’s someone we want to get behind.

So, yeah, an election is great for collecting membership and you know, a lot of people might think, well, Larry Anthony was the last of the NATs in those days and numbers but we’re a new generation here of Nats that are coming forward now and I’m here to bring forward some modern policies.

Hone part of a ‘new generation of Nats’

And you’re a woman, so of those 300 members, how many of them are women?

Well, lots of them are women and in fact, I’m incredibly grateful for the women in our party. We’ve got an entire section of the party called Woco, so a women’s collective where we support women and their pathway to politics.

I’m not only just a woman but I’m a mother in politics, and someone who’s a candidate who has young children, that’s quite a hard role to play and I’m very grateful that my party has supported that motherhood role and as a candidate running in the in the election. So it looks different for some, for a mum who’s got children, trying to run a campaign, than it does for a man who’s running a campaign, it’s just a different battle. It’s just a different thing and I’m just so grateful that the National Party have understood the challenges that I face and have supported me in that.

There isn’t a Liberal candidate running in the seat of Richmond. We’ve heard a lot of criticism, though, from people about the low number of women in the Liberal Party specifically. Your party is in a coalition, of course, with the Liberal Party. So what do you say to voters who look at Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party and say, well, they’ve treated women terribly, that’s not a party that I’m going to be voting for?

I don’t think that’s an issue any of the voters are thinking about at the moment. I haven’t heard anyone bring that up to me. I think the number one issue that people are focusing on at the moment is to put food on the table for their family, put a roof over their head, and to put petrol in the car. That’s why we’re tackling those cost of living crises, and trying to make sure that we build more homes, that we focus on supporting local councils to build homes, that we reduce red and green tape, that we defund the CFMEU, that we increase the fuel excise to 25 cents a litre, that we make our supermarkets stop doing price gouging, that we bring down inflation by stopping government waste. These are the topics that people really care about.

Increased engagement from Byron voters, says Nationals candidate

Right now, within the seat of Richmond, you could divide it within almost the three shires in terms of how voters tend to lean. So, Tweed Shire up here where we are today, and Byron Shire, a little bit further south and then right down the southern end is the Ballina Shire. 

I think the strongest performance for The Nationals traditionally has been probably Ballina and maybe up in the Tweed, the weakest being in the Byron Shire. How has campaigning been going down in the Byron Shire specifically and have you noticed much of a difference from voters across those three areas?

Yeah, definitely. So in Byron, we’ve got more and more voters engaging with us than ever before and we’ve got volunteers working all the polling booths in Byron, so very excited about that. We’ve got a large amount of volunteers who are standing and handing out flyers in Byron. It hasn’t been the nicest experience for them. They are copping a lot of abuse from Greens volunteers, actually, but they’re standing their ground and they’re not giving up and they’re going to stay there.

We do have a very strong following in Tweed and Ballina, and we’re just maintaining that and we’ve always had strong supporters, both voters and volunteers.

Kimberly Hone, is there anything else that you would like voters in the Richmond seat, or indeed, across Australia to know about your campaign and of your coalition’s campaign?

Yes. Look, we’ve had a Labor member for twenty years in this seat, we’ve given her twenty years to show us what she can do and there’s nothing that she can tell us that she’s done. There’s no project she’s delivered. All that they’ve run is a scare campaign on Medicare and if you’ve had enough, the only way you can make change is to get behind me and vote one Kimberly Hone.

Listen back to the full interview via Bay FM’s Community Newsroom, aired Friday 25^thApril. Mia Armitage reports for both Echo Publications and Bay FM Community Radio, the latter with thanks to the Community Broadcasting Foundation.