Awkward moment Liberal MP’s own mother is spotted campaigning against him on the opposite side of the footpath
- James Griffin won the seat Manly for the Liberals
- His mother was campaigning for Greens across street
A Liberal candidate in the NSW election was spotted awkwardly campaigning across the road from his own mother who was urging people to vote for the Greens.
James Griffin is the incumbent MP for the seat of Manly and was handing out how-to-vote card outside a polling booth on Saturday in a blue shirt alongside his wife.
But just right across the footpath decked out in a green shirt was his mother who has campaigned for the Greens for 25 years.
‘I’ve been working on mum’s vote for a couple of years,’ Mr Griffin told Sky News Australia.
‘She’s pretty passionate about the environment and good on her.’
He added it also made for ‘interesting Sunday dinner conversations.’
James Griffin has won the seat of Manly for the Liberals (pictured with his wife)
His own mother Cathy was campaigning across the footpath for the Greens
His mother Cathy Griffin said she was proud of her son but that doesn’t mean she would give up her own political beliefs.
‘He’s been the Environment Minister for 18 months and done a fantastic job in my view, made more decisions positive for the environment than I think anyone proceeding him,’ she said.
‘As far as the family’s concerned, we’re all in it together and we have very happy political discussions, cause it really is a lot of fun, but we support James.’
Mr Griffin claimed victory in the seat late on Saturday against rival Teal candidate Joeline Hackman.
‘The teals at a federal level at least came in saying we’re going to do it differently. And they did,’ he told his supporters at Seaforth Bowling Club.
But what we saw at a state level in all of the northern beaches [and] north shore seats was dirty politics, and I think that really has damaged the teal brand.
‘They’ve almost become a parody of themselves.’
While the Liberals retained the seat there was a 10.5 per cent swing away from the party, mainly towards the teals.