Sharn Coombes — yep, her from Survivor Australia — seems to have lost the seat of Dunkley in Melbourne for the Liberal Party according to the ABC. Apparently losing Survivor twice does not, in fact, bode well for getting elected to Parliament. The Australian public know what they want.
The seat of Dunkley is a key seat with a fkn interesting history. Dunkley’s flip flopped a little between Labor and Liberal throughout its history. But it was held by the Libs for over 10 years — between 1996 and 2019.
Then, in the 2019 election it was won by Labor’s Peta Murphy. Murphy’s now retained her seat, though the race between her and Sharn Coombes was pretty tight for a hot second there.
But the ABC has now called that Labor retained the seat, with 15.1 per cent of the vote counted at the time of writing.
Life imitates art, as they say. And in Survivor: All Stars, Sharn Coombes famously won just one jury vote in the final Tribal Council against David Genat.
Can’t believe the cast of Survivor: All Stars had this incredible level of political foresight!
On her Liberal Party official bio page, Coombes is described as the former Crown Prosecutor of Victoria, a national ambassador for Habitat for Humanity, Future Women mentor and two-time runner-up of the television program Australian Survivor.
Two-time-runner-up is a very polite way of saying two-time-not-winner.
She also appeared in Survivor: Champions v Contenders back in 2018 where she lost in the final jury council again Shane Gould. It was a tight five-to-four vote — much like tonight’s Federal Election is shaping up to be, you could say.
Is Australian Survivor the ultimate oracle for Australian politics? I’m seeing it, you’re seeing it, we’re all seeing it.
And while we’re here, I’d like to re-pitch my idea for Politician Survivor because I’d love to see Peter Dutton take an endurance test. We deserve that at the very least.
