Gay Liberals perform well in NSW poll
Openly gay Liberal Bruce Notley-Smith has defied the odds to achieve a massive win in Coogee at Saturday’s state election.
The former Randwick Mayor took the seat from Labor incumbent Paul Pearce to become the first Liberal member for Coogee in 37 years.
The 15.1 percent swing to Notley-Smith was nearly identical to that away from Pearce while support for the Greens stayed virtually unchanged.
Notley-Smith told the Star Observer he had been as shocked as anyone by the win.
“At just after 6pm, after polls had closed, I sat quietly in the car writing my concession speech because I really thought I had lost, so it was an incredible shock, and a humbling shock, to not only win but to win with such a great swing,” he said.
“I’m really grateful to those who have put that faith in me and I won’t let them down.”
As for what his more conservative colleagues in the new Parliament might make of a gay MP in their ranks, Notley-Smith said they would have to get used to it.
“I’m sure they’ll see from firsthand experience that the sky has not fallen in and I’ll do everything I can to persuade them on our issues,” he said.
“And it’s not only on my side of the Parliament that there are people who need to clarify their thinking on our issues … but I’ll be doing my best within the Liberal Party to ensure that our issues and concerns get addressed as they should be.
“There’s never been an impediment to me standing up for issues dealing with the GLBTI community in the Liberal Party and our community has a lot of friends within the Liberals.”
Notley-Smith said he was confident that Liberal policy commitments to the GLBTI community would not be traded away with the Shooters and Fishers Party and the Christian Democrats in the balance of power.
“[Premier] Barry [O’Farrell] is a man of his word and in advancing causes for our community. It would be great if those on the Opposition benches threw their weight behind any legislation that serves to improve our standing in the community.”
In the electorate of Sydney, candidate Adrian Bartels was buoyed by a 14 percent swing to the Liberals at the expense of Labor, the Greens and independent Clover Moore.
“It would have been a miracle for me to win so I’m happy with the result,” Bartels said.
But with Moore’s margin reduced to 4 percent, he was keeping his mind open about running again for the seat.
@John Forgive my impertinence but you don’t sound like a left leaning voter. You sound more like a walking advertisement for the Liberal Party.
Well at least Labor, Greens & Clover et all would never ever ever preference Fred Nile CDP or shooters parties. Cant’ say the same about Liberal. What a joke. Oz Liberal queens are like US gay Republicans – suckers for self flagellation & internalized homophobia.
@ Kos For the record I have never voted Liberal and the likely hood of that happening is very slim. In fact in the last federal election I even voted Greens for the senate and Labor for the lower House. I in fact had such high hope for Gillard but she has proven a mighty disappointment.
I am just not interested in the hypocrisy where people such as yourself who have an ideological bent and believe that most of the gay community agree with you.
If you read my post clearly i stated that there are some nasty members of the Liberal Party who see us as a threat but that can only change if we join and educate all including those that are currently not friendly towards us.
The election of Notley-Smith is very much a positive and in fact we should be encouraging it more.
@ Kimba who thinks that we queer folk all vote in one block then honey you really need to move in different circles not and associate with those that only agree with you.
Hey Rob most of my gay friends also voted for Liberal also.
Anyway Fred Nile is no real threat. The Liberals can also count on Labor members to pass legalisation. BTW the Liberal Leader supports the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras which is fully in contrast to Fred Nile.
@Chris … I think you just made Paul Weston’s point quite well.
Also, unless you placed a preference yourself to Fred Nile’s Group below the line, by voting for the Liberals “above the line” last weekend your preference was exhausted before Nile got to see it (a feature of the NSW voting system).
Calling people “dogs” just because they voted for a party other than the one you happen to support is hardly a reasonable comment in a democracy; where everyone is entitled to follow the party they wish to, and should be able to do so freely and without repurcussion – anything else and we may as well live in a socialist or fascist dictatorship!
And FYI, I’m gay and voted Liberal. To the best of my knowledge so did most of my gay friends.
Get into bed with dogs and you will wake up with fleas. I expect there will be a lot of scratching over the next four years ! Oh and to all you dogs who voted liberal last Saturday thanks for helping Fred Nile hold his upper house seats – collaborators !
@John 50/50 split. Dream on sweetie.
@John “The problem with the elites within our community” – what a farking laugh. I had a die hard Liberal say this to me at a dinner party once & I almost punched him in the face in with the sheer hypocrisy. Let me remind you that: the Labor Party will & have always been the “party” to introduce GLBT legislation & compassionate policy to those of us less fortunate…I have never seen YOUR party introduce as such in it’s entire history. Oh & the Liberal Party’s core value is all about individual wealth. So Mr Hypocrisy, who the the F#$k are you to brand others ‘elitist’. I feel sorry for you cause maybe mummy & daddy voted Liberal you don’t know better.
Just stumbled across my partner Paul Weston’s comment. It’s why I love him so much, and why we’ve been together 20 years. He doesn’t take BS from anyone, me included! Go Paulie!
@John:
There have been Out members of state upper houses, starting with Paul O’Grady in NSW in 1995.
But elected to a seat in the House of Representatives, well there are only two so far (Hyde in WA and now Notley-Smith).
Well if I lived in his seat I would vote for him. I would even vote for him if I never knew if he was gay either. Anyway I just pissed off with Labor and they deserve an hidding in the election.
@Paul Weston – the problem is not a gay Liberal – it’s Liberals and Gays!
The new Liberal Attorney General is Greg Smith. This is what he said about us:
“I believe the majority of the community, like me, objects to putting gay and lesbian couples on the same level as married or de facto heterosexual couples.”
Or on even the simple state partnership register:
“The passing of this bill…[makes] supporters of marriage and the family feel like the occupants of strife-torn Derry during the troubles in Northern Ireland.”
This guy is Attorney General – lawmaker – HELP!!!
@Ben. I’m Paul Weston, Bruce Notley-Smith’s partner of 20 years. I can assure you we put our hearts and souls into winning this campaign and were not convinced we were going to win. The Greens and Labor swapped preferences in the seat – one of only two in the State and in defiance of their own leadership – so we were not confident of winning at all. I’ve had enough of all the knockers in the gay community over the past few months – you have been the least supportive of all communities. How about supporting us for a change rather than making nasty and unfair comments all the time? Go through an election campaign yourself before you can make assertions about what a “reasonable person” would believe. I’m sick and tired of having to defend Bruce to the gay community because he’s a Liberal – he’s done more for the visibility of the gay people in our area than you will EVER have the capacity to understand. But, no point wasting my time, it seems the Queer Community still prefers bitchiness to reason. How sad, and I’d thought we’d come so far.
What sour grapes that Greg Adkins has – instead of celebrating the success of an openly gay MP in parliament we have a member of Rainbow Labor (disclosure please Greg) get all party political.
The problem with the elites within our community of Greg and his ilk are is that they assume all queer folk vote left.
Well I’ve got news for him and the rest – we don’t and in fact the likely hood is that there is a 50/50 split between left and right just as in the wider community.
Correct me if am wrong but Andrew Olexander in Victoria was the first out MP in parliament and again he was in the liberal Party. Granted he did himself no favours with his behaviour but he was responsible for getting the Liberals to support the first round of relationship recognition laws about 10 years ago under Steve Bracks!
Lets hope Notley-Smith does himself and the community proud and yes there are some not so nice people within the Liberal Party but I would much prefer us fighting within the party than outside it.
We most certainly don’t want to be like the US where the Democrats have pretty much sewn up the gay vote leaving us out in the cold when the Republicans are in power!
On a side note in the UK there are more out gay MP’s within the Conservative Party than the whole Labour & Liberal Democrats combined!
LGBT community and conservative politics simply do not go in the same sentence as far as I am concerned
I really am glad we have an openly gay member of parliament elected in the House of Reprentatives. The only other time this has happened was the election of John Hyde, a WA Labor MP.
However, the “I thought I had lost” stuff was was eye rolling and cringeworthy.
Centrebet had Bruce Notley-Smith at $1.04 to win and all the pundits and newspapers had treated his victory as a foregone conclusion.
Take a tip from Barry O’Farrell. He never said “I am surprised to have won”. Don’t waste your credibility with statements no reasonable person would believe.
In order to change society, you need to change both sides of politics. The best way to win hearts and minds in the Liberal Party is from within the government. Bruce Notley-Smith is no token gay and no closet gay. He lives his life openly as a gay man. His very being is a political statement.
We can’t expect miracles overnight but we can certainly expect there will be no roll-backs of hard-won rights. With the Liberal Party playing catch-up, the Labor Party will have to try harder for our votes at the next election. That contest will be good for us.
If Clover Moore retires in 2015, the electorate of Sydney will be hard fought between Liberal and Labor. Gay Liberals are good for our future. Nothing beats two rivals vying for our affection.
“And if this new member achieves little traction and homophobia rears its head legislatively, will he himself resign ad a signal to the LGBT community that he has principles? Time will tell.”
What an unattractive statement.
There are many ways of achieving equality.
However, this ‘Resign or be damned’ statement which brooks no argument, is as unhelpful as it is naive.
The proof will be in the pudding. Will human rights legislative gains under the ALP for GLBT be reduced or in any way wound-back by the O’Farrell government? Can this new queer MP educate his leader and party that same-sex attraction is far deeper than the “lifestyle” phrase the new premier used in his victory and first day in office speeches. And if this new member achieves little traction and homophobia rears its head legislatively, will he himself resign ad a signal to the LGBT community that he has principles? Time will tell.