Election 2022: Why so many voters arrived at the ballot box in their budgies
Voters turned heads at the election day ballot boxes wearing nothing but swimming togs on a cold autumn day.
Jim Finn, a member of local swimming club Bondi Salties, set tongues wagging when he walked straight from the beach to the beachside ballot box at Bondi surf club.
He was wearing nothing but his swimmers despite the rain in Sydney on Saturday and the temperature only reaching 17 degrees.
"No one seemed to think it was out of place, I mean it was Bondi, it was right on the sand," Mr Finn told Yahoo News Australia.
"There were a few other people in the line in their swimmers and goggles who'd just jumped out of the water."
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It was part of a cocky campaign by Aussie swimwear company Budgy Smuggler who promised voters a free pair for voting in their trunks.
Many brave souls did just that all over the country and shared pictures to social media.
In his arms, Mr Finn held his eight-month-old daughter.
“Allegra’s first time voting,” he wrote on Instagram with the hashtag #smugglersdecide.
"This is the most Australian thing I've ever seen," fans commented on the scene at the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club polling booth."
By 11am on Election Day, Budgy Smuggler had given away 100 pairs of togs.
“It’s going to be an expensive Election Day at Budgy Smuggler,” the business wrote on social media.
“We expected maybe a few people would take up the offer.”
“You’re all lunatics but in a very good way.”
Budgy Smuggler chief Adam Linforth said the business ended up giving away over 200 pairs on the day.
"The [election] campaign has been pretty boring so we thought we’d see if anyone was keen to exercise our Australian constitutional right to vote without pants on, but in their Budgy Smugglers," he said.
"We thought maybe a couple of smugglers would do it. Over 200 have voted without pants. How good is Australia!”
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