Opinion: The Few Will Decide

AS a journalist when people on both sides of an argument consider you biased it bodes well.

Elizabeth Flaherty, Editor of scone.com.au.

Barnaby Joyce’s press secretary was upset with me earlier this week because he feels I am working for Tony Windsor’s campaign; I tried to console him by assuring him that one of Tony Windsor’s staffers refers to me as “the b##ch”, so if they were both upset because they feel I am backing their opponent then that demonstrated there was in fact balance.

Unfortunately it didn’t console him and he responded that “everybody said so, not just one person”, a sweeping unsubstantiated generalisation I’ve not heard anyone use since primary school, but when people get highly emotional it is an insight into what is really going on.

This is a marginal seat and the two leading candidates are both fighting hard, with the cracks clearly showing in their emotional staffers.

The swinging voters in this electorate will decide who is the next member for this electorate, the candidates know the choice is in their hands and since this is the first time Scone and the Upper Hunter has been in a marginal seat for too many decades to recall, hopefully the voters understand that this is an election where their vote will actually count.

Chris Rock explains political party loyalists

People who are dyed-in-the-wool political party supporters will do what they have always done and vote the way they always have regardless of policy, strategy or candidate personality; Chris Rock probably describes this phenomenon most accurately: Watch Video (WARNING: the video has offensive language, do not click on the link if you may be offended).

Friends have asked what I think of Joyce and Windsor after interviewing both of them a few times and as much as some people like to belittle politicians, both men are intelligent.

While Joyce’s flippant remarks in the media play into the hands of people who want to portray him as an buffoon, he is Deputy Prime Minister and anyone who believes you can manoeuvre into such a position by being a fool, that reflects more on them than Joyce.

Equally there are people who point to Windsor as having betrayed the National Party, but considering he was an independent candidate, not a National Party candidate that seems to defy basic logic; they also conveniently forget he got the Liberal Greiner government into power.

Supporters of Joyce say that having a federal member who is also the Deputy Prime Minister will be a huge benefit to the electorate and he will have the full attention of the government, while opponents point to a lack-lustre result for the electorate to date, until five minutes before the election when he played Santa Claus.

Opponents of Windsor say that if the coalition gets in, our electorate could be penalised for having elected an independent, while supporters say Windsor has a good relationship with Turnball who was also on the outer during the Abbott government and point to the existing rifts between the Liberals and Nationals.

Again, if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal, National, Green or Labor supporter you will vote the way you have always voted and the only thing you’ll have to weigh up on election day is whether to have a sausage sandwich or a lamington at the polling booth.

But if you are a swinging voter, now is the time your vote will count, so take advantage of the regular visits from the candidates and ask the questions you want answered, it is rare that the Upper Hunter gets this kind of attention and it may not happen again for a long time.

Elizabeth Flaherty
Editor, scone.com.au