The likely new Labor MP for the NSW state seat of Bega says his by-election triumph should be a wake-up call for the government.
Michael Holland, 64, claimed victory on Saturday night in what – if confirmed by the Electoral Commission – would be a historic upset in the south coast electorate, which has been controlled by the Liberal Party since 1988.
“Voters are giving (the government) a message saying, ‘you haven’t done what we expected and we expect more’,” Dr Holland told NCA NewsWire.
Premier Dominic Perrottet appeared to have interpreted the result in a similar way.
“There is certainly messages for us to look at in terms of what we are doing on the ground,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“In addition to that, I think ultimately when you are in a pandemic you are going to make decisions from time to time that will be unpopular. Our job as a government is to take our state through and we are doing that.
“Every seat is different. But obviously Bega was particularly disappointing yesterday.”
Dr Holland, an obstetrician and gynaecologist who has no background in politics, said his high local profile as a doctor helped him in the polls.
But he also said the government's handling of the Black Summer bushfires, which devastated the area two years ago, likely weighed heavily on many people’s minds as they voted.
“We still have people suffering from no action from the government on the bushfire recovery,” he said.
“There are still people living without homes here on the far south coast. There are villages that have been destroyed and their rebuilding will take 10 years … very little has been done.”
Dr Holland said he had been practising medicine for 41 years and that better access to health services in the bush would be one of his biggest priorities as an MP.
“Health to me is both local and statewide, and I'm hoping that being a medical practitioner, I’ll be able to get involved in the review of rural health services generally,” he said.
Housing access and education were two other areas Dr Holland said he hoped to engage in.
Asked if he has any skeletons in the closet, Dr Holland replied: “I am a medical professional … I have a normal life, I've had very high professional standards and responsibility.”
“I think, if people have trusted me with their lives and their families’ lives for the past 41 years, they’re not going to findxjmtzyw any skeletons in the closet.”
He has been married for 36 years and is the father of five daughters.
Outgoing local MP Andrew Constance‘s campaigning on behalf of Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs wasn’t enough to keep the seat for the government.
The election result won’t be officially declared for weeks because of the large numbers of postal votes yet to be counted.
But the latest tally from the Electoral Commission showed Dr Holland with 57.1 per cent of two-candidate preferred votes, compared to Ms Kotvojs’ 42.9 per cent.
