The NSW state election is upon us, and voting is compulsory if you are an Australian citizen aged 18 and over.
In fact, data from the Electoral Commission shows 5.5 million people are eligible to vote for NSW’s 58th parliament, in a race between Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns for Premier that is expected to be down to the wire.
Pre-poll voting opened weeks ago, with early voting centres open from Saturday, March 18. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, more than 10 per cent of the eligible population applied for a postal vote, and 640,000 have voted early.
If you’ve left your vote to election day today, voting starts at 8am and closes at 6pm sharp.
Polling booths — and democracy sausages — are usually located at local schools, churches and community halls, or public buildings.
Here’s where you can find one close to you:
And if you want to avoid the disappointment of a sausage-free polling booth, the Australian heros behind DemocracySausage.org have mapped out exactly where you can snag yourself a snag today.
If you’re not in the state where you’re enrolled to vote on election day, you will need to vote at an interstate voting centre.
Ahead of the election, news.com.au sat down with both leaders and asked what they thought was the biggest challenge facing NSW over the next 12 months.
He said, while NSW is in a strong position as a state, there are “economic challenges in front of us”.
In response, he said his party is trying to “help families budgets” through things like Back to School vouchers, Active Kids vouchers and Creative Kids vouchers to ensure families can continue to invest in their children.
“We want to help with the cost of sport, the cost of swimming lessons and it’s all there. It’s all available on Service NSW,” Mr Perrottet said.
He also noted that the Service NSW website had a range of measures to help Aussies through this time, including “$250 off everyone’s energy bill”.
For Mr Minns, he believed the health system and rising energy prices were some of the biggest areas of concerns for the state.
“We don’t live too far from St George Hospital. We’ve got a lot of friends that work up there,” he said.
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“Nurses and paramedics and our hospital cleaners and orderlies all say they thought that Covid was the most difficult period, but the period after that has been a real challenge for them.”
Mr Minns noted that many of the people they speak to have said they are looking to get out of the health profession altogether because of how challenging it has been.
He also noted Labor was committed to helping ease the cost of rising energy bills, with the Energy Relief Fund meaning eligible NSW households will receive up to $500 to go towards electricity bills, with NSW small businesses will also receiving $315 off their energy bill.
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