Seven days before the axe falls, to the extent that the commencement of pre-polling at the start of this week hasn’t lowered it already. Local level intelligence from around the place:
• The Illawarra Mercury has published two more IRIS Research polls of local electorates, which I presume had samples of 400 and margins of error approaching 5 per cent. In Wollongong, Labor’s Noreen Hay is found to be headed for defeat at the hands of independent Gordon Bradbery, who leads her 54-46. In Keira however it’s 50-50, which compares with a 52-48 Liberal lead in the previous poll conducted early last month.
• Informed local observer Oakeshott Country relates in comments that a new publication by the name of The Port Paper has published a poll of 373 respondents in Port Macquarie conducted by Strategic Marketing. This found independent incumbent Peter Besseling on 34 per cent, Nationals candidate Leslie Williams on 40 per cent and Labor on 14 per cent, which panned out to 50-50 after preferences (although skepticism has been expressed about the methodology used here). Oakeshott Country notes the Nationals are putting a lot of effort into the seat with an emphasis on negative advertising, which is presumably not a sign of over-confidence.
• Imre Salusinszky of The Australian on the Nationals’ hopes:
The rural and regional-based party is looking to add six seats to its kitty next Saturday. Three presently belong to Labor: Bathurst, in the state’s central west, held by popular retiring MP Gerard Martin; Monaro, on the far south coast, held by Emergency Services Minister Steve Whan; and Cessnock, held by another popular retiring MP, Kerry Hickey. Those would be sweet victories, but not nearly as sweet as defeating three popular rural independents whom the Nationals regard as interlopers: Dawn Fardell in the western seat of Dubbo; Peter Draper in the northern seat of Tamworth; and Peter Besseling in the north coast seat of Port Macquarie. Independent MPs will not feel the full force of the anti-Labor swing. What they might feel instead is their conservative constituents’ wrath at the actions of federal independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, whose seats of Lyne and New England overlap the state seats of Tamworth and Port Macquarie. Stoner plans to leverage Oakeshott’s and Windsor’s support for the minority Gillard government for every vote it’s worth.
• Imre Salusinszky of The Australian further reports that Labor strategists are “cautiously confident” that Monaro MP Steve Whan can defend his 6.3 per cent margin, which would be an enormous achievement under the circumstances.
• Sean Nicholls of the Sydney Morning Herald reports a heavy duty campaigning effort has Labor increasingly confident that John Robertson can defend the 22.4 per cent margin in Blacktown.
• Stephen Bromhead, the Nationals candidate to replace the retiring John Turner in their safe seat of Myall Lakes, is in a stable condition in John Hunter Hospital after a car accident.
• Centrebet has issued a breathless press release saying its betting points to a result of Coalition 69, Labor 17, independents five and Greens two.
• Latest additions to the election guide have focused in inner and southern Sydney: Vaucluse, Cronulla, Coogee, Maroubra, Heffron, Drummoyne, Strathfield, Canterbury, Rockdale, Kogarah, Oatley, Parramatta, Sydney and Marrickville.
Morris Iemma was a noticeable absentee from yesterday’s Labor launch – probably a good idea to avoid the upcoming trainwreck. 🙂
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/labors-love-lost/2107762.aspx?src=enews
Interesting read re Newcastle area!
House prices in Canberra are getting pretty ridiculous, with a lot of Territorians making the move to Queanbeyan. Monaro is an area I would consider trending Labor (possibly Eden-Monaro too, though the retiree factor of the South Coast makes that less so). I’ll tip Whan by a point.
Is it true that the ALP Government has asked to turn off all the electricity in counting stations on Saturday night to save electricity for Earth Hour?
Only, instead of it being from 8.30-9.30, they’ve asked for 6pm – midnight.
IT
to force the Libs to drink warm champagne?
Evening all.
Stanny at 192.
Boston don’t have to recommend school sales, Roozendaal already did that in the 2009 Budget where, from memory, he’d budgeted $270 million from sale of ‘surplus’ school land. I think a lot of that was supposed to be Hurlstone Ag School, which uncle Joe was very keen to offload – but the alumni (sans Cde Latham), the good Doctor McDonald and the Greens John Kaye crashed the BBQ and the deal was never consummated. They also tried to do the same to the Dalwood Centre at Seaforth, which helps country schoolkids who otherwise are good at lifting things catch up on maths and letters and guff like that. There is still that $270 million to find from somewhere and Roozendaal has been about as straight as a coathanger in answering questions pertaining to “well, where the hell are you gonna get the readies from, Eric?? We’re about $269,999,950.00 short here!!” or wtte..
Just watch out for the Real Estate signs when you drop the kids off on March 29.
Btw Boston also found TAFE generates something like $6.50 in GDP measurable economic activity for every dollar spent on it. Given that TAFE is about to be taken out the back and have a slug put through its temple by COAG (Thankyou Verity, thankyou Julia, thankyou linesmen, thankyou ballboys) it’s illustrative to note how the ideas of these brave consultants are cherry picked by the great minds that run our society. But what would I know. I’m just a truck driver.
MAX WILLIS. My eyes get bloodshot just thinking about the old fellow. Carrying on the tradition started by Edmund “Toby Tosspot” Barton. My favourite Legislative Councillor still remains Paddy Crick. He’s in Cyril Pearl’s ‘Wild Men Of Sydney’, which should be compulsory reading for everyone who thinks their generation has been afflicted by the Worst. Government. Ever. Truth be told, they’ve all been pretty shambolic from the day Governor Hunter had Sydney’s first hospital built in exchange giving an exclusive license to import rum to Sir John Jamison and William Balmain. Did you know the Cowper Administration planned to build our railways on tracks of wood?? Oh yeah. This state. It’s a doozy. You couldn’t make this sh*t up if you got the writers of West Wing, the Sopranos and the Wire and locked them in a motel room with half a kilo of blow.
Frankie V at 198, I wept openly when I heard the Great Ninos is safe in Smithfield. Further updates on the Hollywood biopic that is being made on Ninos’ life, Courtney Love will play the role of Reba Meagher, as the love interest of Joe Tripodi (being played by Charlie Sheen), while Orson Wells will play John Della Bosca. Eddie Obied is to be played by Charlton Heston’s left bicep.
I still think the Libs could win this one. Weatherill Park has the highest rate of mortgage defaults in NSW from memory. These people are not in love with the status quo.
Independently Thinking at 199: I have the Monaro HTV’s here in front of me. The Greens ain’t preferencing no cussin’ varmint. Their candidate in 2007, Cathy Moore, did well as she had built up quite a following by running here since the nineties. She is also on Palerang Council and prior to the last election err, ‘governance’ issues featured prominently on that august body. The Green candidate this time around was an independent on Palerang until he nominated for the Greens. Palerang has tremendous pockets of wealth – it is not cheap acreage – and the Greens, by a lot of footwork, seemed to have built up quite a following here. They will take votes off the tories as much as the ALP. Their vote goes south the further you do.
By way of background people may find this comments thread from the RiotACT illustrative. I know it’s from two and half years ago, but it does provide some good background. Barilaro (the Nat, back then an independent) came from nowhere to come third for the Queanbeyan Council slugfest during that campaign, but I wonder what sort of headway he is making towards the southern end of the electorate where Whan has a pretty good machine. People who have stood on a polling booth all day handing out how-to-votes will particularly enjoy some of the colourful descriptives.
My gut feeling is Whan will hold on, but we won’t know the result of this for days. It’s simply too close to call. But as I mentioned previously, don’t slash your wrists if early returns show big National numbers – these will be small rural booth where the whole famly (meaning the whole community) vote the same way. Even Davo and his other brother Davo.
Q. What’s got thirty legs and nine teeth?
A. The Bombala rugby team.
Whan’s posters are on every road leading from Canberra to Queanbeyan (or as I like to think of it, The Mystical East).
Tactically this is a seat that the Libs should run in and let the Nats have Bega. Too many urban voters in Queanbeyan for this electorate to really fall in love with Barilaro’s hokey akubra sales pitch. Barilaro also put out a flyer that has, I counted them, all of 61 words on it – and that’s including the authorisation. In Eden-Monaro the Nat thing works OK, because you’ve all those Leroys down the south coast, but Queanbeyan? Jerra? Mmmmnah.
Hamish 203, tell me about it! I’m commuting 170 k’s to work as a result! And that’s one way!
IT at 250, I drank warm champagne when Penrith won the comp in 1991. How did it taste? It tasted like victory!
Oh dear.
Erics got out and he’s messed all over the carpet. It seems the people will have to choose between the word of the man who couldn’t even do the numbers against that old hippy Paul Pearce, and the former NSW Auditor-General Tony Harris.
To be honest I don’t think the issue here is whether or not the figures from the Parliamentary Budget Office stack up on the costs of ALP election promises (which are, after all, meaningless), it is why did Sam Dastyari not nail shut that box that Eric was supposed to be put into for the next week. If the Woollahra Wallbanger pops up on TV news any night this week it will give pause to revise the ALP’s position downwards, especially in places like Parramatta, Granville, Macquarie Fields and Bankstown. He has all the electoral appeal of Ivan Milat.
Meanwhile Barry is going to make itcheaper to catch the train.
I think we have to give this part of the media cycle as Coalition 1, ALP 0.
Meanwhile, my old friend Laura Norder has made an appearance!
The power of the bludge!
Yesterday (or it might have been the day before, I can’t remember. I drive trucks) I was bemoaning the Greens going missing on the Murray Darling Basin, and lo, a press release is issued and duly reported on by no less a body than the bludgetariat’s favourite organ, the ABC. Glad to know you’re following!
Still, it went out with the voice being Greens candidate for the Murray Darling, Heidi Hendry. And more power to her, that’s a big thing that basin and, as far as I’m aware, this is its first bit of oxygen this election. You think the carp are bad, you wait to see what those clowns in Macquarie Street will do to this river (which only covers, gee, I dunno four fifths of the expletive state!).
Still no sign of the Greens Jeremy Buckingham though (who was once the Greens spokesperson on the Murray-Darling Basin before he took a vow of silence). Has anyone seen him lately? Is he in the box at Sussex Street marked (ERIC. DO NOT OPEN UNTIL SUNDAY). Or maybe he’s got the onling equivalent of laryingitis.
If anyone sees Jeremy can they tell him to pop an ad on Gumtree telling us he’s OK, we’re all starting to worry. He is number three on the Greens upper house ticket and some people think he might be in a position to win a seat.
shellbell back earlier,
I think Gladys Berejiklian could lead the Liberals one day. SHe’s that good. SHe won’t be Transport after the elction – Barry won’t allow empire building – but I do expect her to get a senior portfolio, Education, Health.
I think Barry’s looking forward to giving one of the senior Nats’ Corrective Services. There job will be to sell the lot to Serco Sedexo.
Where’s Rex Jackson when you need him.
Their, not there
Thanks Eddie. I remembering seeing Rex years ago at the giftshop attached to Berrima Gaol when you could buy prisoners’ wares which seemed to be only lacquered pieces of tree made into clocks. Over summer, I asked the curator of the museum of the Berrima Courthouse whether he knew if Rex made them himself. Answer: no, other prisoners did so on his behalf.
And that just about sums up the qualities that every Labor Minister from Maurice Iemma on has brought tot he table.
even14 at 201, it seems a shame Iemma will miss the train wreck as he built the dodgy tracks, the shonky train, switched the points to send the train off down that track to the right and shovelled coal in with his engineman Michael Costa.
In fact he did everything but hang around and get smashed.
Lacking in visceral organs m’boy, lacking in viscera.
It shows how late it is in the day when these pygmies can cast such long shadows.
Eddie Ward, no need to ponder, Jeremy’s doing what a good pollie should be doing.
handing out how to votes?
Christ, that’s not campaigning old son, that’s what your party organisation is there to do. Prime? WIN (Canbeerra-Griffith-Albury, not just Wollonging)? NBN? The Dubbo Daily Liberal? Or the local community FM station? What freaking media?
DO a Google News search matey and you’ll see he’s hit two medias in the last MONTH. The Tweed (Yes, and the Greens are really short in the Byron area aren’t they, they’ve only got one other winnable MLC based there) and the Central Goddam Western Daily, and that’s because, as an Orange Councillor, the journo has him on speed dial.
And. He’s. Handing. Out. How. To. Votes. In. Dubbo.
I’m glad to see he hasn’t been eaten by a tiger, but seriously, this is amateur hour stuff. He should get off his arse and get into the face of every single human he can on three hours sleep a day until 6pm Sunday and he just might, might, have a chance.
How about a walk through the Westfield in Wagga, the main street of Griffith, Tamworth has a population of 40,000. Christ, sit him outside the Penrith Bloody Railway Station for six days bot no. Standing around flapping his jaw with people who have already made up their mind in Dubbo. Pffft.
As it is now, he’s toast. And if this is his idea of a political work ethic it’s a good thing. The last thing the Lunching Council needs is another useless drone with a sense of entitlement.
It reminds me of the 2004 campaign in Blue Mountains. candidates forum at a pub, lots of blue collar blokes, seriously pissed off with the ALP. The ALP candidate works his way around the pub afterwards, buying drinks, hading a card out here, making a joke there, seriosuly listening to a complaint there, slapping old boozer joe on the back. meanwhile the Liberal candidate spent the whole time arguing with the local trot newspaper seller.
I tell ya, if the ALP wasn’t a political machine, it’d make a damned fine mobile phone sales company.
Prepoll is going off, by all reports. There are more people prepolling than ever before. Any candidate with any sense will be outside their local prepolling booth from open to close, especially in a major regional centre like Dubbo.
Every vote he manages to win by putting the Greens front and centre of voters minds as they do the deed is a vote for the Greens. At the very least he can explain upper house preferencing which Labor seems very keen to encourage.
And if you haven’t noticed, pollies aren’t exactly welcomed with open arms in Westfields these days.
The election’s beyond gladhanding now. It’s nose to the millwheel until 6pm Saturday.
When David Gazard gave up in Eden Monaro last year he spent his days at the Pre Poll.
Pre-poll is where your party members should be. Any candidate worth their salt should be out talking to people who HAVEN’T made up their mind, and certainly haven’t voted. I doubt you’re going to swing too many people as they’re on their way in to vote. You do that by talking with poeople out in the street, or doorknocking, or getting a television camera to point at you by doing something interesting. ALl the mkore resason to wander through Westfields. It’s just the fillup that The Greens could use – big bad corporates chucked our candidate out. Just make sure you’ve got a TV Crew with you. Not impossible in regional NSW.
Pre Poll is the LAST place you want your candidate to be. You won’t need two hands to count the numbers of votes he will win there.
I will be very interested in the Green vote at Dubbo pre-poll when it’s finally released.
btw, Dubbo is at the centre of a Nats landslide – wouldn’t it make more sense to get to a region where things are a bit more fluid? Say, the Riverina, the Monaro, Upper Hunter??
Dubbo? Lordy mama.
Like my mate says: the Army Reserve of Australian politics.
Prepoll numbers increased hugely in the Vic election last year. It was thought that this might have been a reaction to the huge queues at federal election polling stations. Not that in NSW there will be a lot of waiting around for the results like there was in Vic. In NSW will these votes be counted on the night?
After this election, the chances of a rural Independent MP getting much traction on issues with the government will be Buckleys. At least with the Labor government, they will have been depriving the Libs or Nats of a seat. Richard Torbay could be in his own political wilderness .. without even the perks of the speakership to keep him company.
No, they’re not counted on the night (as I understand). And postals aren’t counted until a week afterwards. This will be important in seats where there are big swings against the ALP where results will be unclear for days.
Barry will get a majority on election night, but the final result and make up of the lower house and the Lunching Council will take some time.
PrePoll will be big, which is why Hattons people are all over it. But they’re not so dull as to plonk John Hatton on a booth handing out HTV’s. I can’t believe Jeremy Buckingham is the only Green in Dubbo. At the very least you’d put your lower house candidate there. Can’t see much change, for a change, from a mob that already afraid of Westfields.
blackburnseph, I think you’re right.
Even if Besselling wins, O’Farrell’s cabinet will treat Port Macquarie like it was North Korea. Lord Torbay of Crutchers Flat, same, but I can’t see him hanging on past 2014 anyway – every job he has had since he was manager of the bar at the UNE has been a step down for him.
Good oil tells me former NSW Farmers Federation prez Mal Peters is lining up to replace Torbay, as an independent.
It remains to be seen if the Nationals can urge the Bob Jelly’s from their ranks enough to get much traction of their own in O’Farrell’s cabinet. As a f’rinstance, O’Farrell’s opposition to electricity privatisation was cynical and opportunistic, but the nats were genuine. How do you think the likes of Andrew Fraser and Piccolli are going to travel with the Mike Baird’s and Chris Hartcher’s of this world.
Please do not remove your seat belt until the plane has landed and the safety light is extinguished.
eddieward @ 206
I never said the Greens would be preferencing Whan.
What I said was that Whan had a strategy to get preferences off Greens (obviously in the Q booths – not much point in Bungendore).
The idea is to hand out cards asking Greens voters to preference Whan as a person with green cred. This is not to be confused with what the ALP dishonestly did last year in SA handing out pretend Family First How to Vote cards. What the ALP in Monaro is proposing to do is quite legal and ethical.
I do not know whether they are going to do it or not now, but it was being considered.
I don’t think blackburnseph is right. Besseling will be fine, especially if the Coalition needs his vote. He’s already said he’ll support the Coalition in the event of a hung parliament and during his term he’s voted with the Coalition more times than Nationals leader Andrew Stoner. Besso happily admits he’s voted with the Coalition 87% of his votes. I think Barry O’Farrell would secretly prefer to deal with an intelligent, Coalition-leaning independent than yet another gormless National.
There’s no need for O’Farrell to treat Besso or this electorate like poison, the man doesn’t have any record of jumping ship from the Nats like Oakeshott does.
As a Port Macquarie local I’ve had way too much experience of the way a Coalition government treats a safe National seat. They just don’t bother because the seat is safely on side, so nothing ever happens. The Nats always make a lot of empty promises, they do dirty deals with developers and they tell lies. It’s always the same formula and somehow the cow cockies still vote National.
I don’t think the bloke who kept SEFE’s access to the Coolungubra is really steeped in green cred. In fact, the fact that Whan is even in with a chance in this show is because he has studiously courted rural voters and forestry workers. He knows the Greens aren’t going to vote for Barilaro.
SO any attempt to sell himself as having ‘green cred’ such is unethical, if legal. It will also be used mercillessly against him elsewhere, and look like him being “real Steve”. Be yourself is the worst advice you can give some people, but not in Whan’s case.
That said, I doubt there’s much Green vote in Queanbeyan anyway. Greens are on the nose as the village idiots across the Border make life unbearable for people who drink, smoke, root and chunder in gardens (i.e. young people) anyway. They hit seven percent in the council election that I’d guess is a bit of a high water mark, but I could stand corrected by 2010 fed figures which I should check but I couldn’t be arsed.
leone, the O’farrell government will not need Besselling’s vote. They will have a VERY comfortable working majority. All the decisions will be made in the cabinet and not in Imre Saluzinski’s column.
In fact they could safely pass legislation and tack “And Steve Besselling is a weiner” at the end of each Bill, and it would still pass both houses of parliament.
The closest this parliament will be to being a hung parliament is if the citizenry of New South Wales descend on it with flaming torches, pitchforks and rope.
That said, I’d still vote for Besselling because he’s the best candidate.
Thanks Eddie
Love your highly descriptive posts as usual btw.
Queabeyan will be fascinating as it has become a dormitory suburb of Canberra .
How do get the time to follow so many seats all at once?
Leone good post Port will be one of the main seats of the night. I suspect the state Libs will treat the seat with kid gloves during term 1 due their overriding desire to prove Oakeshott wrong. If they treated port like Pyongyang then Oakeshott could well be returned.
re Monaro.
The key to this seat will be Cooma, not Queanbeyan. Sure, there’s a lot of votes in Queanbeyan, but it’s also Whan’s base. Sure, the trend in places like Jerra is a growing Liberal vote. This will probably flow to the Nats (it’s the aspirational thing, McMansions, etc.), but not necessarily – and Steve was GREAT during the Floods in December.
At the last election Whan won Cooma for the first time sing Bennelong asked Colbee if he’d paid the rent this week. If Whan can hold the swing against him here to 500 or so votes across all four Cooma booths he will be home, with or without Green preferences. If Barilaro (a strange northern type) sweeps Cooma he will win the seat.
Whan is is working like a one armed bricklayer in Cooma, and I saw Barilaro out in the Industrial Area at Polo Flat last Tuesday lunchtime. In fact, it was seeing him out campaigning (I watched. He wasn’t very good) that piqued my interest in this contest which, up until then, I’d pretty much written off.
PS – By way of declaring an interest, I have a vote in Monaro. I will be examining closely the candidates policies on them grading my driveway and splitting firewood at my place. I am also interested in issues surrounding who is buying me a drink next.
Stanny, first god invented the truck, and then the laptop came later. I cleverly combined the two, placing political information at my fingertips whilst curled up in the back of the van – which reminds me, I should get some sleep. Got a 1am start tomoz. I could be coming to an electorate near YOU and I’m sure you’d want me to be well rested.
I think the big development today was the reappearance of Eric in the campaign, he made a complete Roozendaal of himself and if this runs on 7 or 9, or has already run on ten, it will punch more holes in the sinking ship.
Night all, and remember LANG IS RIGHT!
eddie
I was telling my eighty eight year old Mum today about your interesting contributions and about your signing of with “Lang is Right” her response was “He was too!”
Alan Jones interviews KK today. Magnificent interview.
http://www.2gb.com/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=8428
Very good interview by Alan Jones and KK, yeah that biase bastardo
I really like the nsw ALP attack ad.
Woman 1: Who will you be voting for on next Saturday
Woman 2: I am thinking the liberals
Woman 3: I am not
Woman 1: So who will you be voting for
Woman 3: Well I do not want to give Barry too much power
So the ALP ad cannot find reason for people to vote for ALP
GG
Thanks for posting that interview. She handles herself really well and does it with dignity flair colour and humour.
She is one gutsy “sheila” and would leave most of the males in the NSW Labor Government and indeed the administrative wing of the Party for dead.
She will have a big future wherever it is.
Notice how differently Jones handled her as opposed to the way he handled Julia.
wow, just saw a 30 second John Hatton ad on the tv.
Wow
Excellent interview, if she ran for Federal leader, I would vote for her, too bad the NSW ALP has just her and a bunch of inelectable incompetants
MTBW,
I think Jones is starting to realise that Gillard and Co played him. All the hysterical shock jocking made him look unhinged.
Could have been a Melbourne/Sydney thing too.
KK should be moved by Fed Labor into a safe Eastern Suburb set preferably Kingsford Smith as she is a far superior performer to the Midnight oil guy who should re join the band with Rob Hirst and actually do something he is really good at (not dancing).
She has excelled herself in this election and is clearly one of Labor’s best performers in Australia in my view she is superior to the incumbent PM.
Eddie when you arebin the truck do you ever listen to Lawsy’s trucking songs in between Googling political info? btw what do you think Lawsy’s is going alright with his comeback I can’t see him having the influence in politics he had ten to twenty years ago outside of a few nursing homes somewhere.
eddie
still too pissed too post predictions
maybe tomorrow
btw the CC and hunter aint as rooted as you think
Speculation tonight that Blacktown isn’t as safe for Robertson as he’s been claiming in the media!
The doomsday scenario for Labor would involve Robbo, Rees, Daley, Borger, Firth & Tebutt all losing on Saturday, and then they’d have no other choice but to ask KK to stay on as Opposition Leader.
Oh scrap this election.
I think I’ll vote for Greene here in Oatley because he bothered to reply to answer my letter when I was researching for a geography assignment 10 years ago….
Darn, I can actually say I know one of the candidates now, the Green candidate in Riverstone is a friend of a friend of mine. Putting uni students a candidates, that’s very cliche of them.
Another land deal, evidently without Cabinet approval, has been referred to ICAC:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/labor-hit-by-property-scandal-20110321-1c3we.html
You do wonder how many of these will come to light after the election?
Now O’Farrell is talking nonsense: he will cut train fares and queues at the same time:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/state-election-2011/ofarrell-promises-lower-fares-and-shorter-queues-20110321-1c3xe.html
This is like Reagonomics and the Laffer curve. Cutting public transport fares does not increase patronage, it just reduces revenue. So you can afford to run fewer services, and queues get longer.
GG
[I think Jones is starting to realise that Gillard and Co played him. All the hysterical shock jocking made him look unhinged.]
I think you are dead right!
By the way Alan Jones interviewed the Lib candidate in my seat of East Hills Glenn Brookes on radio this morning. Very soft “get to know you” type of conversation. Jones of course was glowing but it tells me that Labor has lost it!
Socrates@242
That story has more history than the Indus Valley. Just when you thought it couldn’t get more corrupt, it does. The site is within Kuringai National Park. Originally National Parks NSW offered 11 million to buy it, but the government said they got 15 million from the mates of – wait for it – Robertson, Costa, Arbib and Roozendaal. Later it emerged that those guys only paid 11 million. Obviously the problems Pittwater Council was causing them with the development plans made them want to get out of the deal, so the government has bought it back from them at the last possible moment, as a favour, and at a profit. Unbelievable – or it would be with anyone other then NSW Labor.
[By the way Alan Jones interviewed the Lib candidate in my seat of East Hills Glenn Brookes on radio this morning. Very soft “get to know you” type of conversation. Jones of course was glowing but it tells me that Labor has lost it!]
Jones is also championing the Liberal candidate for Blacktown!
I believe Labor has written off East Hills, Oatley & Kogarah, supposedly safe seats.
[I believe Labor has written off East Hills, Oatley & Kogarah, supposedly safe seats.]
My understanding as well Evan some one on here the other day said that it was all seats along the Georges River.
Labor getting more than 20 seats is looking decidedly unlikely.
Maybe they need this so they can all get over themselves! You wouldn’t feed some of them.
True!
Hoping that Steve Whan & Nathan Rees survive, 2 of the more decent Labor MPs, would be useful to rebuild Labor’s stocks around MPs like them.