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The 50-year-old dad from Nelligen, population 230, will vote for Julia Gillard’s Labor Party on August 21.

“A lot of men say they don’t like taking orders from a woman but they’re married so they’re lying through their teeth,” Mr Christensen said.

He is one of about 93,000 voters in the Eden-Monaro electorate, which has been described as a perfect cross-section of Australia. Since 1972, the party whose candidate has won Eden-Monaro has won government.

While many on the coast are against marine parks, Mr Christensen says they are a great idea.

“The Labor Government has cleaned the waterways up,” he said.

In Eden-Monaro, sections of angry, undecided voters could dictate the fate of the nation.

A local environmental issue and a looming hospital closure are two issues shaping up to loosen Labor’s hold on Australia’s most important electorate. A few thousand votes separate Labor and Liberal in the bellwether seat.

A cluster of fishermen at Bermagui frustrated about a Commonwealth plan to lock them out of fishing grounds in 2012 could have enough sway to swing the marginal seat toward either of the two major political parties.

Meanwhile, a further 1000 unhappy townsfolk at Pambula are not pleased with the NSW Labor Government about the intended closure of the town’s hospital.

This week, a leading member of the Eden-Monaro fishing community offered votes to whichever major party would help his fishermen. The Bermagui Fishermen’s Co-Op manager, Rocky Lagana, who runs the biggest business in town, said: “There are thousands of votes on the table and we are willing to listen.”

The commercial and recreational fishermen to be locked out of the fishing grounds mostly come from Bermagui and further north at Narooma.

There are 3400 voters in the two tourist towns and anger about the marine park stretches inland to Bega as well.