While federal election fever sweeps the country, most backyard signs in the south-east Tasmanian town of Huonville are for an entirely different contest — a by-election for the Upper House state seat of Huon.
For cafe owner Steve Hollingsworth, who has been severely short on staff due to COVID-19 infections, the by-election has mostly passed him by.
"We're trying to keep this place alive at the moment, I don't really have much time to be taking notice of what's going on," he said.
Huon is one of three Upper House elections to be held this Saturday, alongside Elwick in Hobart's northern suburbs and the north-east seat of McIntyre.
But the contest in Huon is being held more than four years earlier than expected, after former Labor MP Bastian Seidel quit, saying he could not continue to "work in a toxic environment".
Mr Hollingsworth said he was impressed by Dr Seidel's performance, but disappointed in his decision to call it quits.
Geeveston's Julie Baverstock is much more understanding of Dr Seidel's decision.
"I was quite impressed [by him], probably more so when he left, because he said he left because of the corruption and because of the issues the party had and he was not happy to continue working under those conditions," she said.
"I thought that was a pretty gutsy move and quite honourable."
Ms Baverstock has been paying close attention to the contest, reading up on the five candidates in the local newspaper. She said she had "strongly made up her mind" about who to vote for.
"Probably what we're looking for is people who represent us well, represent us consistently, with a little bit of innovation, a pride in the area," she said.
Five candidates are contesting the seat: Labor's Toby Thorpe, Liberal Aldo Antolli, independent Dean Harriss, Green Gideon Cordover and the Local Party's Pat Caplice.
Huon 'hard to predict'
Election analyst Kevin Bonham said Huon was hard to predict due to a lack of polling and Upper House results being unpredictable, but Mr Thorpe was in the box seat.
"In some respect, it's Labor's to lose given they're defending, the fact their candidate is very young may be a factor or not, I'm not sure that voters will hold it against him," Dr Bonham said.
Mr Thorpe, 20, who ran in Franklin at last year's state election, would be Tasmania's youngest Upper House MLC ever if elected, and the second youngest MP.
He said Mr Harriss, the son of former Liberal minister and Huon MLC Paul Harriss, also had a good chance of winning the seat if he could finish in second position after preferences.
Dr Bonham said that before Dr Seidel's victory, Huon MLCs were historically conservative-leaning independents but said its demographics had changed in recent years, with the area boasting a growing Greens vote.
Healthcare, theft issues close to heart for voters
Huonville resident Shayla Ackerley has one of Mr Thorpe's posters in her backyard.
The 20-year-old hairdresser is not normally into politics but put the poster up because she is close with one of Mr Thorpe's supporters.
"Things could be better. A lot of our system's buggered. hospitals and stuff like that. Things like that need to change and I think our environmental stuff needs to change."
A few hundred metres down the road, there is a sign for independent candidate Dean Harriss in beauty therapist Skip Ford's yard.
She said she was still making up her mind about who to vote for, with the sign more a decision by her partner Dan.
"In the last election we had a couple of different posters up on the fence, so we're certainly not just streamlining for the one vote," she said.
"But [Mr Harriss] has always made time for Dan and has always reached out and has played a good role in the community, so when he comes along and asks Dan if he can put a sign up then he's happy to oblige."
Issues she would like the new MLC to take on include a recent spike in theft and new health services for the region.
Upper House elections 'lost in the noise'
Dr Bonham said the contests in Huon, Mcintyre and Elwick were all "low profile", which he largely attributed to the federal election.
"A few years ago, we had a clash between [the Hobart seat of Nelson] and the federal election, but people were really interested in Nelson," he said.
"This time it seems like the Legislative Council elections are really struggling for attention, and it might be that the turnout is not great. It will be interesting to see," he said.
Dr Bonham predicted Labor MLC Josh Willie will be easily returned in Elwick but said that independent Tanya Rattray could face a challenge from former Northern Midlands mayor David Downie in Mcintyre.
"David Downie is a high-profile figure in parts of the electorate but I haven't seen a lot of publicity about the campaign at all," he said.
