Hearts & Minds - Hulett struggles to keep a lid on it

A quietly confident Kate Hulett fronted the media on Victoria Quay this morning to answer the question on everyone’s lips: How are you feeling being ahead of sitting member Josh Wilson in the race for the federal seat of Fremantle and defying all expectations?

Kate Hulett at Victoria Quay this morning. Credit Mark Naglazas

“Electric” said Hulett, who was struggling to keep a lid on her ecstasy at repeating her astonishing performance in the State elections and being responsible for a massive swing away from Labor in an election that saw a red wave roll across the country.

“Even if people’s expectations have been raised and they’re watching their politicians from now on, that is a huge success. Our expectations are now higher. We demand more,” she said.

“Also what this shows is if you’ve got a good independent, with a good community behind them, they can run in any seat across the country. This seat was the third safest [Labor] seat in the country and it is now marginal,” said Hulett.

Despite her extraordinary run in the State elections, in which she went within a whisker of beating Labor Minister Simone McGurk, both the media, analysts and academics were not expecting Hulett to challenge Wilson, who went into Saturday’s poll with a 16 per cent advantage from the previous election.

They said repeatedly that Hulett could not extend her support from the Fremantle CBD and suburbs close to the city to the outer reaches of the federal electorate of Freo. But now that she has a narrow lead with, the ABC suggests, 80% of the count complete, Hulett has rendered her naysayers silent and drawn the media pack down to Fremantle.

While Hulett acknowledge that her success will potentially oust one of Labor most progressive voices — she and Wilson are in alignment on a number of issues such as AUKUS and the live sheep exports — the Market Street shop-owner would not back down on her campaign theme of the major parties ordering their troops to march to single drum.

“Josh is a progressive . . . but he is unable to have a strong voice because of the system. We’re all fighting against the system, the system that is unable to make representatives speak on behalf of their constituents,” she said.

Even though Hulett is struggling to process what is happening — “Here we are again … this is crazy!” – she feels that it is not fluke but where she and her team are meant to be.

“It’s the right time. The community wants it. It doesn’t feel strange or over-the-top. What it reflects to me is how little our representatives actually do talk to the community. It feels exactly what a representative should do — talk and listen and represent,” said Hulett.

While Hulett and her team are not getting ahead of themselves — they have been here before and stumbled at the finish line because of the postal and absentee votes, which historically have favoured sitting members — there is a greater optimism in the camp than at this stage in the State election.

This is because unlike the previous contest Hulett is being preferenced ahead of Labor by all the parties except One Nation (in the State election she was placed below Labor by the Liberals).

The Hulett brigade have also been told that there will be no more updates on the Australian Electoral Commission website as counting continues (don’t bother with the hourly check-ins, I’ve been advised).

The next thing they hear from the AEC will be that they are either going to Canberra or spending the next few weeks on the Cappuccino Strip talking about what might have been.

But at the moment the smiles on the faces of the Hulett team who gathered at the harbour today were bright enough to guide a ship into shore on the stormiest night.

* By Mark Naglazas