Dave Sharma is the Federal Liberal for the bougie seat of Wentworth. His electorate covers the southern shore of Sydney Harbour where it’s common to own 4 houses, walk a cavoodle and write your year 12 high school grade on your campaign flyers. Excuse me, plz exploin?
This week, Labor Councillor Philippa Scott called out the move by tweeting a copy of Sharma’s campaign flyer.
Shout out to the teachers of his comprehensive local high school @TurramurraHS and the @TeachersFed who helped him get these great grades he’s still proud of 30 yrs later. Since Dave has first hand experience of how great public school is, I hope he sends his kids to one as well
— Deputy Mayor Philippa Scott (@CrPhilippaScott) March 10, 2022
The TER (Tertiary Entrance Rank) was the system used to measure a student’s final year entry score before the HSC was introduced.
It’s truly bizarre that Sharma included the score on the flyer. Nobody gives a flying fuck about your final year score after you leave school.
Imagine being in your late 40s and still putting your high school marks on your CV.
Is that the best Dave Sharma, Liberal Party candidate trying to pretend he’s an independent, has to offer?#auspol#WentworthVotes
— Tansy (@dream_tansy) March 11, 2022
What makes it even more bizarre is that the system used to measure his past success doesn’t even exist anymore.
Sharma is essentially relying on people believing he did a good job once upon a time to cover for the fact he isn’t currently doing much.
If that isn’t a metaphor for his time in public office then I don’t know what is…
The timing is less than optimal for Sharma who faces a tough election fight against independent candidate Allegra Spender.
Spender is running as a “climate independent” and is backed by the Climate 200 fund.
This fund was set up by the son of Australia’s first billionaire – Simon Holmes à Court. Its goal is to support independents wanting to unseat Coalition politicians who have been slack on climate action.
You can read our 3-min explainer on the climate independent movement here.
While Wentworth is traditionally a conservative seat, the residents have become increasingly fed up with the Coalition’s inaction on climate change.
As the website They Vote For You points out, Sharma has been disappointing the people of Wentworth (and their cavoodles) when it comes to climate action.
No wonder he wanted to get the website shut down last year.
What happens when voters in Wentworth check Liberal MP Dave Sharma’s voting record as an MP? #auspol #ausvotes #WentworthVotes pic.twitter.com/3viB7xwDMj
— Peter Murphy (@PeterWMurphy1) March 12, 2022
The door is now wide open for Sharma to cop a serious L at the next federal election.
In the latest development to the Dave Sharma chronicles (AKA: A Series of Unfortunate Events), he has now been accused of copying Spender’s campaign flyer colour.
Who would have thought there would be so much competition for teal?
Look what arrived in my letterbox today – Allegra Spender’s newsletter, and desperate Dave Sharma’s teal knock-off – with not one mention of the party he represents pic.twitter.com/e42F14PCNF
— mkedar@home.social (@mkrosebay) March 10, 2022
There’s also no mention of the Liberal Party on Sharma’s flyer. Perhaps he’s embarrassed to chuck the logo on there and wants to be seen as an independent like Spender?
“Copying our campaign colours is a great start for Dave Sharma but now he needs to copy our policies,” quipped Spender in a Tweet.
Looks like my opponent is a big fan of teal. Copying my colours is a great start. Now do my policies. Commit to voting in Parliament for a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030, a federal integrity commission, and the humane treatment of refugees #realteal
— Allegra Spender (@spenderallegra) March 11, 2022
For our coverage on the likely federal election date – see our explainer here.
