Not a sausage sizzle to be seen

MASKS yes! Sausage sizzle no.

IT was election day morning at the Cowes Primary School, but it would have been busier on a school day.

The new concrete pavement, leading up to the new $5.5 million school gymnasium, opened by Bass MP Jordan Crugnale last week, where the polling place was set up, was bereft of voters.

The committed party volunteers were there for their stint, handing out how to vote cards, in yellow t-shirts, red, blue and green but only a trickle of punters was coming through.

There wasn’t a sausage sizzle either to lighten the mood although they may well have done their market research, because one knowledgeable party volunteer said she estimated more than half the people had already voted ‘early’ in the past week – hence fewer people to buy sausages.

What was noticeable however, was the number of people turning up in COVID-19 masks to vote.

Local health authorities say “COVID is running rife in Wonthaggi at the moment” but that could easily go for Phillip Island as well with a further 22,519 new cases reported in Australia today, 11,925 of them in Victoria and a further 35 deaths Australia-wide, 21 of them in Victoria.

So, to wrap it up, no sausages, few voters and lots of masks. The mood? According to voters there appears to be a mood for change.