DEAR News Of The Area,
I come from the land of independents (not independence).
Having an independent as your Federal representative is like spraying mist into a gale.
That is as close as I can get to the vernacular.
Back in Tamworth in the early 1990s Tony Windsor was initially elected as an independent for the State seat of Tamworth for two terms and then stood for the Federal seat of New England as an independent for three terms.
Peter Draper became the State rep as an independent after Tony moved to the big house.
Both men were disaffected conservative politicians.
Both commanded record primary votes in their electorates.
But Tony harboured a deep personal vendetta against the Nationals because he won 11 out of 12 local branch nominations for pre-selection, only to be overruled by HQ who had a preference for David Briggs, a local health system CEO.
So Tony stood as an independent and won in a landslide backed by the sentiment of the electorate who echoed the betrayal.
Throughout the whole terms of both incumbents, the Governments of the day punished the electorates, even though Tony Windsor held the balance of power.
The inferred leverage was futile.
We all know how that finished when Windsor and Oakeshott delivered their conservative electorates into the hands of the Gillard Labor Government.
The constituents of the Federal seat of New England had the final say at the next election when Tony went from about an 80 percent primary vote to about 20 percent.
Be warned.
Independents, cannot, and do not, deliver on their grand and ideological visions.
That’s the nature of the Australian political system.
The rewards always go to those electorates whose party is in Government.
It is known as “pork-barrelling”.
Regards,
Dave WILLIAMSON,
Coffs Harbour.