Brigid Austin looks set to join the eight other Junee Councillors for the next four years after what was an excellent showing by the Junee local on Saturday night. With votes still trickling in Mrs Austin is no sure thing, but appears to be the front runner with a clear margin. She sits on 32.3 % and 951 votes with the next closest candidate on 22.86% and 657 votes at time of print 5:15am Wednesday November 27.
Brigid said, “On the Saturday night when the voting closed everybody assumed that was it other than preferential votes, but we were looking at how many people had voted as opposed to the total electorate and we worked out that there were around 1300 people that haven’t voted, so we thought either they still have another first preference vote count or 1300 people didn’t vote.
“I didn’t realise that around 75-85% is quite normal. I didn’t realise so many people didn’t vote as I’ve just always voted.
“We weren’t really sure, and then this morning (Morning) I was so happy with the results, I couldn’t believe it. Then they uploaded another lot and they were postal votes and we thought that if they are postal votes it could mean that the first preference votes have finished being counted and now they will be doing the seconds and thirds etc, which still could change the outcome.
“It’s quite complicated how they do all that.
“To me I haven’t won yet!
“I said to my husband I’m excited but I’m not quite there yet, we’ll see, because anything can happen.
“I’m not counting my chickens today (Monday).
“Mark Vaughan has done so well and he’s really not that far behind. For somebody that’s quite new to town, he has done extremely well.
Brigid’s family have been long time residents of the Junee area “My family moved here when I was about one and I moved away for about five years, but other than that I’ve been here most of my life and I know a lot of people.
“Election day it was really fantastic. I went down and hung around and talked to people and it was good catching up with people.
“I had a bunch of flyers printed off and through the week at the pre-polls (I’m always out and about, I’m at the IGA nearly every night and all over Junee) and everyone kept coming up to me saying I’ve already voted and I kept saying why has everyone already voted early and something like 1300-1500 people voted early, and every single person said to me because they hate election day, it is so awkward when you go to walk in and people come up to you and shove flyers in your face.
“And I thought “oh dear”.
It went on all week and the amount of people that said it to me and I thought I’m not sure what I’m going to do here, so I took the flyers with me, but it ended up that I just talked and talked and talked to people and didn’t really hand any out.
“I’m now using them as grocery lists.
“It was a really good day and there was a really good vibe. It was all really positive and people were happy to be there. It was good.
“I had a really good catch up with some of the other guys. I hadn’t met Mark Vaughan before, so it was great to meet him. I know Alan Tucker but not overly well, so it was good to have a chat with him and Peter Nell, I’ve known him most of my life and he’s a great fella and we had a really good catch up.
Brigid will likely join husband Matt on the Council, who she joked isn’t a ‘local’ yet as he moved to town in 2003.
“Matt moved here in 2003, so he’s actually not even a local.
She was pleasantly surprised by family “One of Matt’s brothers and one of his sisters came from Melbourne and surprised me on election day. They walked into the election, it was so good. It was just gorgeous.
“Both Matt and I have completely different interests in terms of Council and it’s interesting because I always wanted to go for Council because I worked in Local Government for 11 years and I loved it, really loved it.
“I’ve always said I’m going to go on Council one day.
“It’s actually exciting having the numbers so close. I keep refreshing it having a look to see if they’ve added any more votes.
“The amount of people that don’t vote really shocked me, but at the moment we are right in the middle of harvest and there’s a lot of people involved in harvest and every hour is vital, I totally get it, and the fine is $55, so you are not going to get off your header for $55.
“We have rain expected this week and I have a lot of mates that are farmers and to get as much of it off as they can.
Brigid is passionate about the community and said, “We have an incredible community here and I’ve always said time and time again if you don’t have a strong community there’s no point in having roads, rates and rubbish because you simply will not have a town and if I get on I’d love to get more involved with community projects and be that liaison between Council and the community projects.
“I’ve been heavily involved in the show and that takes up a lot of time. People don’t realise it’s only one day, but we spend a lot of time getting that up and running every year.
“I’d love to get involved with more community stuff.
“I did dabble in property and economic development when I worked at Council and that always interested me.
“Junee is just growing, it is insane and I’d like to have a look with Council at our industrial and economic development, where that is heading and what do we need to do and where do we go. We are very insulated here with the abattoirs, the gaol, the railway, but we don’t have any big industrial subdivisions. All the tradies or anyone that wants to start a business, where do they go? There’s no land.
“Just being part of the decision making process and trying to make sure that it is going to benefit the most people without going yeah, yeah, yeah, pass it. Liaise with the community and find out what they really want and what they need.
The NSW Electoral Commission website states the following about Junee.
Distribution of Preferences Report. This page is not yet activated.
The distribution of preferences, if required, is conducted to determine who is to be elected.
The distribution of preferences will take place at the Returning Officer’s office in the weeks after Election Day.
Once completed by the Returning Officer, the distribution of preferences file will be updated.