A Perth coffee shop invited customers to cast their unofficial vote ahead of this weekend's State election and the Liberals have come out on top.
Local Perth identity Swedish-born Maud Edmiston, known as 'Miss Maud' to locals due to her 17 coffee shops and restaurant, has been holding her traditional pre-election 'taste-tester', the Miss Maud Coffee Bean Poll for 17 years.
Inviting customers of her shops to drop a coffee bean into a 'voting beaker' to gauge their preference of the day for Labor, Liberal or others, the results were announced on the eve of the Western Australian election.
At a strong coffee-themed breakfast in Perth this morning attended by members of community and business, of the 28,074 coffee bean votes cast, the results were in favour of the current Liberal State Government led by Premier Colin Barnett with 45.3% of votes.
Labor got a roasting at only 28.5% and was followed by the Greens at 9.1% with Nationals WA at 4%.
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Ms Edmiston came to Australia 45 years ago from Sweden and started a coffee shop in a Perth arcade, based on the image of her grandmother's farm cottage and has become a local identity.
Peter Thoenell, President of the Perth Swedish Club, says Ms Edmiston is a great community leader and is full of good ideas, although he takes the Coffee Bean Poll in good humour.
"I'm wondering what cross-section it actually represents - people who go into cafes as compared to people who don't go to cafes. The people who don't go to cafes maybe don't bother voting? I don't know how it works!" he laughed.
The poll invites community members to think about and share their views on a wide range of topics.
The theme at today's event was 'WA - bigger than ever', with a tongue-in-cheek cake shaped with a large WA state blown out of proportion next to a comparatively smaller rest of Australia, expressing sentiment that WA is supporting the rest of Australia, with a lot of growth and opportunities
And while housing affordability is another of the issues participants expressed concern about, the cake will be donated to homeless charities Manna and St Barts, who tonight will take their share of the state, if as cake only.
"We are very grateful, it's a beautiful cake, it's such a treat for the people tonight," said Bev Lowe OAM of Manna, who feed children and the elderly. "A great way to celebrate what a good state we are."
Now in its ninth year, the Coffee Bean Poll is considered by organisers an accurate predictor of community sentiment. With voting taking place tomorrow, results will show whether there really was something in the coffee beans.
