NSW Elections: the aftermath (pt1)

This post follows from the pre-election one.

These days all horror movies (I did have the word 'good' in there but decided it was an oxymoron) become part of a franchised series.  Perhaps the worst example of this is Friday the 13th, now apparently up to VII.    I must watch one of these so that I can allocate roles in the movie to certain NSW Politicians.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) the forces of evil have secured 67 Assembly seats as against 17 for Labour, with 4 undecided.  The NSW Electoral Commission have given our local seat (Monaro) to the National Party so I expect to find a mining company coming up our drive any time from now.  A couple of comments on this seat are at the end of this post.

Here are the last three paragraphs in a story from the SMH on the Monday following the election (a few snappy comments follow):

"The former Liberal premier Nick Greiner said Mr O'Farrell had an unprecedented opportunity to consolidate a shift in the vote of traditional Labor areas.
''The challenge and the opportunity for Barry is to do what I certainly failed to do, which is to rework the electoral map in a permanent sense,'' he told the Herald.
"In the upper house, the Coalition is projected to win an extra four seats, bringing its total MPs to 19. It would deliver Mr O'Farrell a working majority with the votes of two Shooters and Fishers MPs and two Christian Democrats."

The best thing about Nick Greiner was his nickname - Kermit - which I suspect was due to his resemblance to the famous amphibian rather than the difficulty he found in following environmentally sensible policies.

The comment about ".. rework the electoral map ..." is a major worry.  This could mean:

1. institute a bunch of policies that are so popular you get re-elected in perpetuity; or
2. fiddle the electoral boundaries to give a gerrymander.

I suspect the second will prove easier to do than the first.  However since many of the electorate get most of their "information" from talk-back radio or commercial TV the results are likely to be similar.

With the Shooters having influence they are likely to get their dream of being allowed to go hunting in National Parks (and probably most everywhere else except the grounds of Parliament House).  The Christian Democrats do not like references likening them to the Spanish Inquisition.  This appears to reflect:

• their lack of a sense of humour (so they don't like Monty Python); and 
• the fact that Spain is not a fire-breathing evangelical Protestant country.

To paraphrase Gough Whitlam " God save the Queen, because nothing will save the State of NSW".

WRT the seat of Monaro there would seem to be several reasons for the outcome.  Before getting to them I noticed that at a booth by booth level Whan was well beaten in Queanbeyan including Jerrabombera where he lives.  The reasons:

1. The big one must be the amount of effort which Barilaro put into the campaign.  He was certainly a major presence in the electorate for the last 6 months.  In contrast Whan was invisible at the local (ie Queanbeyan) level.
2. Secondly would come the issue of the Labour Party in NSW being completely on the nose. I do hope the electors don't think they have got rid of all problems by electing a Liberal/National Party mob.
3. We have had some feedback that Whan was under a cloud in some areas in the electorate affected by flooding as he didn't put in an appearance there.
4. My final thought is that many people in Queanbeyan must have been put off by the appalling traffic system around that city in peak hour.  This would apply especially to Jerranbombera where 2000 workers try to get out through a single road with 4 km traffic jams where it hits road works.  (Personally I would put this down to Queanbeyan Council - including Barilaro - and the Stanhope Government who were responsible for the latest road works.  However I bet many voters went RTA and then NSW Government.)