On Saturday 25th March we get to vote for the 58th Parliament of New South Wales. This includes all 93 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, including the Auburn electorate. Plus 21 of the 42 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Council.

As we approach 25th March, there’s a lot of media coverage about the election – but it can be hard to actually find out information about the local candidates and what they stand for. Chances are most of us won’t get along to a meet the candidates forum and won’t get to speak with the candidate directly. So to make it easier to get to know the candidates, we developed a set of 10 questions. And asked each candidate in the Auburn electorate to answer them. Plus four other electorates – Epping, Granville, Parramatta, Winston Hills.

| About Auburn Electorate | Meet the Auburn Candidates | Candidate Answers | About the State Election |

We sent our candidate survey to all candidates listed on the Electoral Commission website on Sunday 12th March, after candidate nominations closed and ballots drawn. We strongly believe it’s in everyone’s interest for all candidates to provide responses. And we welcome your support in encouraging them to do so.

We appreciate candidates making the time to respond, particularly given how busy it is for them in the lead up to the election. Candidate participation is purely voluntary. The responses have been provided by the candidates themselves and have only been formatted, not edited (even to correct spelling or grammatical errors). Where a candidate did not provide information, we have written NO RESPONSE RECEIVED.

ParraParents is not aligned with any political party or candidate. We have collected this information to help you make an informed decision when voting in the 2023 NSW state election.

About the Auburn Electorate

NSW State Election Auburn electorate map

The Auburn electorate is 32 square kilometres and includes all or part of the following suburbs: Auburn, Berala, Birrong, Chester Hill, Lidcombe, Potts Hill, Rookwood, Regents Park, Sefton and Yagoona.

Learn about the Auburn electorates history, geography, political situation and results of the 2019 election by checking out the Tally Room’s election guide.

Meet the Candidates for Auburn

Here are the 6 candidates running in the Auburn electorate. Here they are, listed in alphabetical order by surname.

Candidate Answers

We’ve provided candidate answers together for each question. Use the links below to jump to the different questions, or just keep scrolling through.

  1. Connection to Auburn
  2. Interesting Facts About the Candidate
  3. Achievements
  4. Main Issues Affecting Auburn
  5. Key Issue Affecting Families
  6. Population Growth, Development and Community Infrastructure
  7. Local Schools
  8. Changing Climate
  9. Planning System
  10. What They Plan to Achieve
  11. Other Comments

Note: Candidate answers have been provided in the order in which they were received. They are provided as received, with minor formatting and spelling corrections.

What is your connection with Auburn (including how long you have lived in the area) and what you like about it?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • I lived in the area for more than 15 years, after migrating to Australia few years earlier
  • I have local business as registered migration agent for years
  • I volunteered with many local organisations and helped a lot of new migrants and refugees settling in the area
  • I ran for election (both for local council and state) before: 2008, 2011 and 2012.
  • I have strong networks in the area: networks of active members of community, friends and business leaders
  • The area is very diverse, vibrant and easy to integrate in. You immediately feel that it is a close community
  • The area has wide range of shops, restaurants and vital services that are easily accessible at acceptable cost

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

What are 3 things people might not know about you?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • I am open minded about every aspect of life and can integrate easily with people, community and business.
  • I am honest and treat people as I wish them to treat me.
  • I am willing to help any needy person.

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

What have you already achieved for/ in the electorate?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • In the area, I worked and campaigned very hard and achieved many achievements including:
    • campaign for better services for migrants and refugees
    • campaign for transparency in public life and against corruption
    • campaign against the Australian intervention in other courtiers: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria…
    • campaign against extremism
    • campaign against attack on our civil liberties, against lockdown, restrictions and vaccine mandate
    • Campaign to fight poverty and unemployment: working with charities and other stakeholders on this issue.
    • campaign for family values and against attack on religious freedom

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

What do you see as the main issues affecting your electorate? (limit to 5)

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  1. Poverty and unemployment: The area lacks major projects to create local sustainable jobs. Because of the background of many local residents (as new migrants and refugees), they need guidance and help to develop their qualifications and expertise to find suitable jobs or start own business.
  2. Struggling infrastructure: the area is growing very rapidly which puts a lot of pressure on the delicate infrastructure. With the seat under Labor control since its creation, Labor does not care about it.
  3. Because of its demographic composition, it was always under attack from mainstream parties whenever they needed to generate hate to gain electoral gains. The latest was the harsh lockdown and restrictions enforced on the area, but not on areas with less migrants and refugees.
  4. Increased living cost resulted from 2 years of lockdown and restrictions combined with current Labor-Greens attack on our way of life especially their attack on the cheap and reliable source of energy.
  5. Lack of quality public education, especially at high school level. The education department needs to commit resources, will and consult parents on how to address this issue

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

What is one key issue affecting local families in your electorate and how do you plan to address it?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • The cost of living became out of reach of most of families and impacted their abilities to access vital services and needed goods and products. The rental crisis, high energy cost and high cost of basic services and products had caused major pressure on families budget, exhausted their savings and caused a lor of pressure including mental health problems.
  • The long harsh lockdown and restrictions (some of the harshest in any Western democracy) combined with Labor-Liberals-Greens attack on our sources of cheap and reliable energy had caused these major problems and caused all these crises.
    If elected to parliament, I will demand an end of the war on coal – gas source of energy until we establish enough sources of renewables (if practical). Closing down generators using coal-gas before building alternative sources of energy is a ticket for disaster and financial catastrophe. I will also advocate for government starting to reduce red-tape to encourage investment in local manufacturing.
  • I will advocate for government to invest more in building social housing to address the housing crisis which affects all kind of businesses and financial activities.

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

What are your thoughts on projected population growth for your electorate, associated development and community infrastructure?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • The overdevelopment of mainly high rise buildings in the area without proper development of enough infrastructure to meet the demand from growing population could be addressed by government investment in releasing lands outside of the populated areas. Such release of lands combined with government’s investment in social housing would relieve the need to overdevelop our areas and relieve the housing crisis. It will also create tens of thousands of jobs in newly developed areas.
  • The infrastructure will not cope if such overdevelopment does not stop. Neglecting such issues could also lead to poor education, poor health and increased crime rate.
  • The government invested in major roads projects that cost hundreds of billions of dollars, when it could address a lot of road congestion by releasing lands outside of populated areas and invest in building social housing in new suburbs.

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Please share your thoughts on local schools in your electorate and what they need

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • I shed some light on schools in the area. The quality of public high schooling is lower than in other areas of Sydney. This is because of continuous neglect of seats that are safe Labor, where Labor takes the votes for granted and Liberals are to interested in improving them
  • If elected to parliament, I will advocate for more resources to address the low quality public education at high school level. I also support establishing co-educational schools, where most of the schools in the area are single-sex schools. With all other socio-economic problems, such type of schools increases isolation, stereotype and other educational and social problems.

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Western Sydney keeps getting hotter! It can be costly for families (and others) to keep cool and our changing climate impacts on health and wellbeing. What do you think is needed and what do you commit to doing?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • There is no evidence that Western Sydney is getting hotter. For the last few years, the area did not see any extreme-hot periods, beyond few days in a year that is really hot. Pushing for climate emergency based on no facts could hurt local families in the Western Sydney area.
  • Declaring climate change, based on no concrete scientific evidence and demand reduction of depending on cheap reliable energy sources would see the already living cost crisis get out of hands. With lack of alternative enough energy generated from renewables, the inflation would keep increasing beyond the reach of most of local families. High inflation and high living cost will drive local families to significantly reduce their spending on vital issues like education, entertainment, health, housing and travel. The quality of life, including access to healthy food, medications and healthy life style would deteriorate significantly if authorities intensify the war on traditional cheap and reliable sources of energy without creating enough sources of renewables.

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

What are your thoughts on the current planning system, in particular complying development? And what, if any, improvements do you want to see?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • Many improvements need to insure the transparency of the system to reduce any possibility of corruption.
  • extensive consultation with locals

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

What are 3 key things you plan to achieve if elected?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  1. Truth committee about the way state government dealt with COVID, restrictions and the mandate. Such investigation is important to learn lessons and to prevent future governments form abusing its power to push for agendas without consulting citizens. Such investigation is important also to unite a deeply divided society, after authorities singled out large section of the society who believed that lockdowns, restrictions and vaccine mandate were unnecessary and unconstitutional and refused to comply
  2. Campaign against the current attacks on family values, especially in our primary schools and the attack on religious freedoms.
  3. Campaign to see relieve of inflation and cost of living crisis: by increasing the investment in energy producing, both renewables and non-renewables until we are out of the current financial crisis, which is directing now towards total collapse if authorities continue their attack on available resources.

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Is there anything else you’d like to share with residents in your electorate?

Jamal Daoud (Independent/ Australian United Party)

  • I was always principled active member of the community where I campaigned on many issues important for large section of the community of Western Sydney. I will continue to be active on these issues and any new issues that concern our community.
  • I am always accessible and reachable for any suggestions or assistance

Masoomeh Asgari (The Greens)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Julie Douaihy (Liberal Democrats)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Shelley-Kim Goed (Sustainable Australia Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Lynda Voltz (Labor Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

Mohammed (Haseen) Zaman (Liberal Party)

  • [yet to provide answer]

NSW State Election 2023 – General Info

What Are We Voting For?

The 58th Parliament of New South Wales, including all 93 seats in the NSW Legislative Assembly. Plus 21 of the 42 seats in the NSW Legislative Council.

What is the Role of the NSW Parliament?

With three levels of government in Australia, it can be confusing to know who looks after what. The State Parliament makes laws on matters such as:

  • police
  • schools and hospitals
  • state transport, roads and railways
  • housing services
  • community services

When Do I Need to Vote?

NSW Election Day is Saturday 25th March and voting is between 8am and 6pm. Some voting centres or polling places keep different hours so be sure to check. And don’t leave it to the last minute! You’ll need up to an hour to vote in busy times.

You can also vote before Election Day – it’s called pre-polling (when in person) – and early voting starts from 18th March 2023.

Who Needs to Vote?

Voting is compulsory for all Australian citizens who live in NSW and are 18 years of age or older. Fines apply for not voting. You can check your enrolment to vote if unsure.

What Do I Need to Vote?

Take your licence or other photo identification, or something with your current residential address on it. You may also want to take some money to buy a famous election sausage sizzle and support your local school, church or community group. And bring a bottle of water in case you have to wait a long time. Comfy shoes are a good idea as well!

Where Can I Vote?

Voting in person on Election Day (25th March) is still the way a lot of people vote in NSW. It’s generally quick and easy to vote in person at a voting centre or polling place, often at a local school. And election staff and officials are available if you need help. Plus you can usually enjoy a sausage sizzle or cake stall while you wait to vote.

If you would like vote in person, but you are unable to get to a voting centre or polling place on Election Day, you may be eligible to vote early or pre-poll. Early voting for the NSW State election opens from Monday 18th March until Friday 24th March.

The local early voting centres can be found at the following locations and are open Mon-Wed 8:30am to 5:30pm; Thur 8:30am to 8pm; Fri 8:30am to 6pm; Sat 9am to 6pm; closed Sundays.

  • Parramatta: Phive Makers Space, 5 Parramatta Square, level 3. I
  • Ermington: Ermington Community Centre, 6 River Road. It’s open Mon-Wed 8:30am to 5:30pm; Thur 8:30am to 8pm; Fri 8:30am to 6pm; Sat 9am to 6pm; closed Sundays.
  • Wentworth Point: Pulse Centre, 9 The Crescent

You can also vote by post/ mail – applications close 20th March.

How is My Vote Counted?

There are two papers you will be required to fill out on Election Day to vote:

  1. Small paper is Legislative Assembly (lower house of NSW parliament)
  2. Large paper is Legislative Council (upper house of NSW parliament)

You will be given choices on each paper of which individuals or parties you would like to give your vote to. You may choose on each paper to simply put a 1 next to the candidate of your choice. But you may number more if you wish. It’s different for each paper.

  • For Legislative Assembly ballot paper (small): A candidate has to receive 50% of all votes+1 to be elected. This is called an ‘absolute majority’. If the candidate you have voted 1 for, does not have enough votes to be elected, votes are re-sorted to the other candidates remaining, according to the second preference. This is why some people choose to vote by numbering their 2nd, 3rd and 4th etc preferences. See here for more information on voting in the Legislative Assembly (small paper).
  • For Legislative Council ballot paper (large): You may vote above OR below the line, but not both. You may “Vote 1” for the party you prefer ABOVE the line (listed as “Groups”). This is the minimum you need to do to vote. But you may further empower your vote for other preferred parties by labelling 2, 3, 4 etc above the line, and preferences apply, as for the lower house. If you choose to vote BELOW the line you must number a minimum of 15 boxes. See here for more information about voting for the Legislative Council.

Some “how to vote” cards suggest preferences but you are free to vote for any candidate or party you wish. And give your preferences (2nd 3rd 4th choices) to anyone you wish.

What Do I Do After Voting?

Enjoy a (democracy) sausage sizzle, return your how to vote papers to the party for reuse and politely decline any more. A simple “I’ve voted”, or “no thank you” should keep unwanted party politics away.

If interested tune in to TV coverage after 6pm and have your own political watch party!! Results and trends often become clear on the night of election day.

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