Opinion
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After some notable failures in this campaign it's easy to see why the Liberal Party would want a cleanskin.
But student politicians and a fellow who's less than a year out of high school? That hardly seems the Liberals are giving democracy much respect in these seats.
To see it their way, the Liberals have struggled with vetting their people lately.
Peter Poulos resigned as parliamentary secretary for the IIlawarra after it emerged he had sent explicit pictures of a preselection rival.
Finance minister Damien Tudehope quit after it was revealed he held shares in Transurban - the company which owns many of Sydney's tollways, about which he made policy decisions.
A year ago Noah Shipp was vice-captain at Bulli High and enjoying flicking the hair out of his eyes. Now he's offering to represent the people of Keira.
Shellharbour candidate Mikayla Barnes, a part-time public relations worker at an air-conditioning company, has experience only in student politics as the UOW Liberal Club president, as does Joel Johnson in Wollongong.
"If you have ever seen the fast-moving water of the beautiful South Coast beaches, chances are, you are just looking into the eyes of Mikayla Barnes," she says on her LinkedIn profile.
The Liberals will say are just being realistic - knowing they won't win in Wollongong and Shellharbour, they won't waste resources there.
But in giving up so clearly without trying, and leaving candidate selection so late, voters in those seats can be sure there won't be many funding promises made here. And without a full campaign group on the ground there won't be much listening to what the people in these seats want from a government.
After working on Andrew Constance's losing campaign in Gilmore last year, Barnes said the Liberal Party needed to hear the people's voice and "reset".
No doubt these people are upstanding citizens with a drive to help society - but they don't represent a party taking these voters seriously. For many Illawarra voters convinced the Liberal government has ignored them for years, this is hardly going to seem like a "reset" that would mean voters in these seats are being respected.
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