Jonathon Flegg

NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam and Liberal Candidate for Coogee Jonathon Flegg conducted a ‘Water Taste Challenge’ at Bondi Beach on Saturday.

“We took the question to Sydney’s residents and asked them whether they could taste the difference between Sydney water, tap water from the Hawkesbury region and purified, recycled water from Singapore,” Mr Debnam said.

“The resounding answer was there was no taste difference,” he said.

“A couple of people who participated were hesitant at first but after tasting the purified, recycled water they said they would be happy to drink it.”

“If the dam levels fall below 20% and we have to ‘flick the switch’ Sydney’s drinking supply will be boosted by up to 10% by purified, recycled water.”

“Residents can expect to drink purified, recycled water which is no different in taste,” Mr Debnam said.

Liberal Candidate for Coogee Jonathon Flegg said the ‘Water Taste Challenge’ was a fun way to show that only a NSW Liberal/Nationals Government can guarantee Sydney’s water supply will be safe in the event of a severe drought.

“The NSW Liberal/Nationals plan for recycled water will produce twice the water at half the cost of Labor’s environmentally unfriendly desalination plant,” Mr Flegg said.

“Our plan for water recycling means there will not be an energy guzzling desalination plant built at Kurnell,” he said.

“Local residents do not want Labor’s energy guzzling desalination plant and the weekend’s ‘Water Taste Challenge’ indicated people are more than prepared to drink purified, recycled water.

“The weekend’s ‘Water Taste Challenge’ proved that the purified, recycled water tastes no different to the water we already drink in Sydney,” Mr Flegg concluded.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Jonathon Flegg 0425 234 927 or Peter Debnam (Jaymes Boland-Rudder) 0413 690 149.

Liberal candidate for Coogee Jonathon Flegg has said that he is amazed and grateful that despite the incredible challenges of the last one hundred years the mighty Sydney Roosters can now celebrate being the only rugby league club to play continuously at the highest level for every year over the last century.

“The Roosters are the only rugby league club to survive the two World Wars, the Great Depression and the Super League war of the 1990s completely intact,” Mr Flegg said.

“It makes me proud to be a Roosters supporter to consider they are the first club to notch up a hundred years from 1908-2007,” Mr Flegg said. “It is a time for sober reflection but also an opportunity to look to the future.”

On Saturday night Mr Flegg attended the 100th anniversary gala dinner at the Horton Pavilion as the family representative of Harry ‘Jersey’ Flegg, wearing his player’s tie for Rooster No. 1.

“I am also proud of the contribution my relative Harry ‘Jersey’ Flegg made to the formation and early years of the club, who served as the first club captain and club secretary from 1908.”

“It is humbling to be presented with the No. 1 player’s tie, when surrounded by so many of the club’s greats,” Mr Flegg said.

“I wish the Roosters all the best for their first game against the Rabbitohs, which will hopefully count as their 1000th victory.”

MEDIA INQUIRIES: Jonathon Flegg 0425 234 927

Waverley Public School has bumped up its enrolment figures through a community awareness program.

The Liberal candidate for Coogee, Jonathon Flegg, who visited the school with the Opposition’s Education spokesman Brad Hazzard recently, said the school had shown resilience after the Government had wanted to close the school about six years ago, when enrolments dropped to as low as 75 students.

“It wasn’t that long ago Labor wanted to shut Waverley Public School down,” Mr Flegg said. “Without any extra assistance from the Labor Government, the school teachers and local community banded together and have turned Waverley Public into a thriving local school.”

An Education Department spokesperson said neither the current Labor Government nor previous Liberal government had any plans to close the school.

“We have been actively working with Waverley, through our small promotions strategy, to do a recruitment drive and advise on how the school can best build its profile and to attract enrolments,” the spokesperson said.

Mr Flegg said the school had suffered after the reduction of a teacher because it fell one student under the threshold of 130 enrolments.

The Education Department spokesperson said the current staffing formula had been in place for decades and the Liberals were not proposing any other way to allocate teacher numbers.

Leesa Smith
The Wentworth Courier

For Jonathon Flegg, one of the NSW Liberal’s youngest candidates, early mornings and late nights campaigning are part-and-parcel of trying to win a marginal seat in this month’s elections.

With a multifaceted campaign that includes an emphasis on directly interacting with the local community, the 24-year-old Mr Flegg has been a highly visible Liberal candidate for the Sydney seaside suburb of Coogee.

“You have to just get out there and be fully committed to what you are doing, and if you want to be a local member, you do have to have a level of commitment to 40,000 people,” he told The Epoch Times.

Over the past few months he has surprised a lot of the Coogee locals by door knocking his way around the suburb. “They haven’t been door knocked for so long,” said Mr Flegg. “It’s a very positive experience.

“A lot of politicians don’t bother with it any more – and I always say to people it is the old fashioned way – just go around door knocking – and speaking to people face-to-face.”

While it may be Mr Flegg’s first time running for parliament, he is no stranger to the machinations of the democratic process. With his father Dr Bruce Flegg, being the current leader of the Queensland Liberals, politics has long been a part of his life. Recent years being a media advisor for Reverend Gordon Moyes AC MLC in the NSW Parliament has also offered further insights.

In the lead up to the March 24 elections Mr Flegg has been busy attending forums and rallies, candidate meetings, launching campaigns such as “war on parking meters” and “better buses for Coogee” while introducing himself and getting to know the community, local business and media.

“I’ve met a lot of amazing people, and they have shared a lot their amazing things [with me] as well,” he said.

While the Liberals haven’t held Coogee since 1974, they consider the seat winnable.

“It’s a marginal seat…it has always been close – it has always been single digit margins,” said Mr Flegg.

“The reason I decided to run for Coogee was that I thought there were so many good ideas policy wise and so many good initiatives that should be pursued but simply weren’t,” he says.

“I still have a lot to do over the next three weeks – we are going to work right up until the final gong.”

In 2004 Mr Flegg moved into Coogee, he is a patrolling member of the local surf life saving club and is a founding member and treasurer of the Coogee Lions club.

James Bourke
The Epoch Times

Liberal Candidate for Coogee Jonathon Flegg today told a rally of angry residents from Kensington and Kingsford that ending Labor’s 12 years in office on March 24 would also finally end Frank Sartor’s abusive control of planning decisions across NSW.

“Cutting off Labor’s Frank Sartor and his ‘Mates not Merit’ development approvals on March 24 will stop a glut of unacceptable post-election developments from seeing the light of day,” Mr Flegg said.

“The State Labor Government has sold their block of land on Doncaster Avenue to overseas developers who post-election want to turn it into 61 townhouses, each one 3 storeys,” Mr Flegg said.

“Kensington and Kingsford residents on March 24 will eject Labor because congestion and parking are already at their peak and the area can’t take anymore,” Mr Flegg said.

“I am also deeply concerned about the congestion that will come from Labor’s post-election commencement of construction of the infamous Gardener Road ramps,” Mr Flegg said. “Now with a Labor mayor I am not surprised that Randwick Council is not joining the residents and myself in the chorus of outrage against the Labor development machine.”

“Unacceptably dissected between four separate electorates the residents of Kensington and Kingsford feel as though they are the disenfranchised forgotten people, with the Labor Party cutting back severely on local services and the Labor councils stuffing the place full of unacceptable development.”

“It is outrageous that Labor Party councillors in Randwick didn’t abstain from voting on the re-development of Kensington’s Doncaster Hotel when they had received thousands in campaign contributions from the licensee,” Mr Flegg said.

“It’s very simple. It’s democracy for sale. If we don’t change the Government on March 24 then the only hope I can give residents is to mimic the developers and suggest they pass the hat around the suburb to collect enough money to pay-off Labor to not proceed with unacceptable developments,” Mr Flegg said.

“If I am elected on March 24 I will be our community’s voice in Macquarie Street, not Macquarie Street’s salesman in our community,” Mr Flegg said.

The rally was held at Kokoda Memorial Park in Kensington.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathon Flegg 0425 234 927