At a dinner party in Sydney’s Inner West last night a man admitted that he voted for Prime Minister Tony Abbott in the last federal election. In a shocking turn of events Adrian Marlone, 43, architect from Marrickville admitted his voting preference at a dinner table of centre, left-leaning couples. Dinner party hosts, Linda and Mitchell Kean said they were in shock after the revelation.

“I almost choked on my wine,” said Ms Kean. “It came out of nowhere, I just can’t understand what pushed him to make that choice.”

They had just started the third course of an organic produce degustation – after the Keans had spent the morning buying food local farmers markets that day. Discussions had moved onto the topic of the recent cuts to ABC funding.

“It felt disrespectful to be honest,” said Mr Kean. “We’ve always voted Greens with a Labor preference, we thought everyone we associated with had the same outlook.”

Mr Marlones wife, Adele, 42 has been the most affected by her husband’s actions and said it’s called into question their entire marriage.“You marry someone thinking they’re a good person and one day you wake up to find out, you don’t even know them anymore,” she said. Mrs Marlone and her two children Jack, 4 and Daisy, 7, have gone to stay with her parents at their home in Balgowlah Heights until the next election.

“We’ll just have to see if he can change his mind set before the next election,” Mrs Marlone said. “It sickens me to think my husband has contributed to the degradation of this country.”Balgowlah Heights is part of the federal seat of Warringah, currently held by the prime minister.

The (un) Australian contacted Mr Marlone and he declined to comment, “I don’t comment on family operational matters.”

Sallie Shepard

Categories: News, Politics

Tags: Election, Sydney, Tony Abbott