Pru’s win

Freshly-elected Member for Goulburn Pru Goward celebrated her election victory with a bubble bath to soothe her tired feet, tweeting it across the state.

By 8.15pm on Saturday night, it became apparent Ms Goward would retain Goulburn despite an uncertain start.

She told Scoop she was just getting back to normal after a gruelling four-month campaign where she was up against “the perfect storm”.

By this she meant she had to convince one third of the electorate to vote for someone whom they didn’t know very well; she had a formidable opponent in Dr Ursula Stephens (ALP); the federal government was out of favour within the Yass Valley; and Yass was home to Transgrid which was under threat in the poles and wires debate.

“It was like the perfect storm – I had everything going against me,” she told Scoop.

“One third of the seat have never known me… and in regional areas [unlike metropolitan seats] they have to like you and trust you.

“So the first challenge was getting the electorate comfortable with me.”

“I had a great Labor candidate who worked very hard from very early on. She campaigned very well. Even though I objected to her dishonesty, you can’t say she didn’t do it well.”

Country Labor candidate for Goulburn Ursula Stephens with local supporter Michael Pilbrow in Yass recently. PHOTO Katharyn Brine

She joked in the lead-up that she had at times thought about looking for other jobs.

“I thought this could all go pear-shaped at times, the Federal Government was on the nose, my door-knocks had been very telling.”

Going into the election Ms Goward held the seat of Goulburn with a comfortable margin of almost 27 per cent.

But her main opponent and former Senator Dr Stephens attracted a swing of about 19 per cent.

With almost 60 per cent of the vote counted by Sunday morning, after preferences Ms Goward had claimed 57.3 per cent of the vote, while Ms Stephens had gathered 42.7 per cent.

Dr Stephens said no candidate would take Yass Valley for granted again.

“We nearly made it! And we made a huge difference, no-one will take Goulburn for granted in the future.”

The boundary redistribution shifted the seat west of Goulburn to take in traditional National Party territory.

Former National Party Burrinjuck MP Katrina Hodgkinson was forced to nominate for Cootamundra, and won it easily.  The Labor Party attempted to capitalise on her move by nominating the high-profile former Labor senator and NSW party president Dr Stephens for Goulburn.

During the last week of campaigning, Dr Stephens announced $25m for public school for Murrumbateman if Labor got across the line.

Ms Goward said she was still committed to getting a school for the village’s 3000 residents.

“Even before I [was] officially the Member representing Yass and Murrumbateman, I have already fought for and won more funding for water security [to fix Binalong and Bowning sewerage systems and Yass water supply], an upgrade to the Barton Highway, a new ambulance station, Multi Purpose Service and the complete redevelopment of the Murrumbateman sporting fields,” Ms Goward said.

“[Dr Stephens’] school was always going to be a long way off because Labor was never going to win, so it was a bit cheeky of her to make those promises.”

Details of the water upgrades were still before Yass Valley Council, but Ms Goward said $6.5m had been nominated to cover all three upgrades.

Liberal candidate for Gouburn Pru Goward met with Scoop before doing a letterbox drop around Yass in the lead up to the election. PHOTO Katharyn Brine

She said the Recreation Ground upgrade would promote participation in sport and recreational activities and promote community integration, cohesion and social development.

“This is great news for the Murrumbateman community and surrounding region and will mean new equestrian facilities, an upgraded sporting field with new irrigation and turf and new basketball and netball courts,” she said in her press release.

“Currently, 20 active community groups and clubs utilise the one recreation ground with sporting clubs sharing the same field as the equestrian events, not ideal in any case.

Yass Valley Mayor Rowena Abbey was thrilled with the funding announcement.

“This is a huge win for Murrumbateman and the Yass Valley, thank you to Pru for reviewing our application and for lobbying the Premier,” Mayor Abbey said.

On Saturday night before pre-poll and postal votes had been counted,  Ms Goward had 14,679 primary votes to Dr Stephens’ 10,043. With one polling booth still to be counted, Ms Goward had won 57.3 per cent (15,487 votes) after preferences to Dr Stephens’ 42.7pc (11,526).

She won the Yass primary pre-poll count 1057 to 996.

Aside from her bath, Ms Goward said she celebrated with a campaign office party and then found it cathartic to clean out the office on Sunday, taking the campaign paraphernalia to the dump.

“It was very nice to get back to normal – my house looks like a disaster and the garden is overgrown,” she said.

She will be back in Yass on Friday week.

See her You Tube video here.