An independent candidate being touted as a serious rival to Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen in their south-west Sydney electorate has been accused of a ‘desperate grab for attention’ after doubts were raised about the poll which put him in front.
Matt Camenzuli, an IT millionaire and former Liberal Party executive, is running for the seat of McMahon, which has been held by Mr Bowen since it was created in 2010.
A recent poll by Compass claimed Mr Camenzuli had over twice as much support as the Climate Change and Energy Minister in the lead-up to the May 3 election.
But now questions have been asked about the legitimacy of the poll sent by text message.
The poll said it was ‘conducting local research to understand what matters most to McMahon voters’ yet people from neighbouring electorates received it too, as did others from as far away as the NSW Central Coast.
A video showed that Mr Camenzuli’s name appeared to be ‘pre-ticked’ as a favoured candidate, meaning respondents would actively have to untick his name to choose someone else.
Daily Mail Australia approached Compass, the company behind the poll, for comment on the video.
A spokesperson for Mr Bowen claimed the poll was a ‘desperate grab for attention’.
Matt Camenzuli (pictured), an IT millionaire and former Liberal Party executive, is running for the working class seat of McMahon in western Sydney
A recent poll by Compass claimed Mr Camenzuli had over double the support of the Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen (pictured: Mr Bowen with the Prime Minister)
‘A text message was sent to voters from as far afield as the Central Coast and Sydney’s North Shore with pre filled in answers inviting people to express support for this candidate,’ the spokesperson said.
‘This candidate was until recently a senior member of the Liberal Party and he lives far from the electorate. No wonder he’s desperate for attention.’
When asked whether he had commissioned the poll himself, Mr Camenzuli remained tight-lipped.
‘There are pollsters out there and pollsters do what pollsters do,’ he told this publication.
‘I have no control over what pollsters do, mate.
‘They (Labor) would say those things though, wouldn’t they?
‘They don’t want to listen to the people. Chris Bowen is running around trying to sell everybody surfboards made from windmill parts and Chinese-made utes, the electrics utes that nobody in McMahon wants to drive.
‘People in McMahon drive regular utes because they do real work and real work needs real trucks, so you know they (Labor) don’t really care what the people of McMahon think.’
Individuals reported receiving the poll in the neighbouring electorates of Werriwa and Fowler, the division of Bennelong and as far afield as Sydney’s North Shore and the Central Coast. This is despite the push poll saying it was ‘conducting local research to understand what matters most to McMahon voters’ (pictured)
Perhaps most concerning was the fact that Mr Camenzuli’s name appeared to be ‘pre-ticked’, meaning respondents would actively have to untick his name and choose someone else (pictured)
Mr Bowen received almost 48 per cent of the primary vote at the 2022 election and 59.5 per cent after preference distribution, but the Compass poll of 1,000 people has him on less than half that.
It claimed Mr Bowen was on just 19 per cent, far behind Mr Camenzuli, who was polling at 41 per cent.
Even more astonishing was that Mr Bowen did not only trail the wealthy businessman, but he was also behind the Liberal candidate Carmen Lazar who polled at 20 per cent.
If that polling plays out on election day, Ms Lazar’s preferences – which would likely heavily flow toward the independent – would see Mr Camenzuli win comfortably.
Making matters even more complicated for Labor in McMahon is that Ms Lazar is a former Labor councillor who fell out with Mr Bowen when he backed another candidate for the state seat of Fairfield at the 2023 election.
However, Mr Bowen is confident he will retain his seat, telling The Australian that Mr Camenzuli is a former a Liberal Party member while Ms Lazar is a former Labor member turned Liberal.
‘I’m the only one with consistency,’ he told the publication.
Mr Camenzuli said he was ‘very humbled’ by the poll’s results.
When asked whether he had commissioned the poll himself, Mr Camenzuli remained tight-lipped
‘We’ve got a lot of work to do and polls are polls, right. But it does match the sentiment in the seat,’ he added.
‘Both the major parties would rather I wasn’t there. We’re just working really, really hard. We’re up against a big machine.’
Mr Camenzuli’s no-nonsense policies, including reducing the cost of groceries and installing a Musk-inspired ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ to cut government waste has broad appeal, sometimes in surprising quarters.
The ex-Liberal Party member has been supported at some campaign events by former One Nation candidate for the NSW Parliament, Steven Tripp.
Despite being a Labor stronghold, McMahon is home to a multicultural population where many constituents hold conservative social views.
Constituents rejected both the Indigenous Voice to Parliament in 2023 and the same-sex marriage plebiscite in 2017.
Labor and Mr Bowen backed both same-sex marriage and the Voice to Parliament.
Mr Bowen’s portfolio of Climate Change and Energy has also diminished his popularity in a battler electorate where soaring energy prices have hit hard.
Mr Bowen is confident he will retain his seat, claiming he is the only one with any ‘consistency’
Mr Camenzuli, whose website says he is ‘sick of politicians’ has been hard at work campaigning on cost of living issues.
Although he was tight-lipped about how much he has spent on the campaign so far, he did admit ‘it hasn’t been as much as what I spent on suing ScoMo yet’.
Mr Camenzuli unsuccessfully sued former Prime Minister Scott Morrison over factional preselection processes at the last election.
After he lost, he was booted out of the party. It was estimated at the time that the court loss could cost him between $500,000 and $1 million.
‘I’m just a guy from Western Sydney who wants to see a better Australia,’ he told this publication.
‘I’ve been blessed. I’ve done well. But there’s no point having things if the people around you don’t, and for me it’s about lifting Australia and giving back to the nation that I love in the area that I grew up.’
Mr Camenzuli does not live in McMahon itself, but in Oatlands around 25 minutes away.