Now that the Greens have won Ballina I expect to see a flurry of letters suggesting that the electorate will now become invisible in Macquarie St.
No doubt the Nats are in deep trauma and Sir Earl is spinning in his grave but those clinging to the myth that grandson Don was an active member strongly representing us in parliament, have not been paying attention.
Certainly he was a fixture at public meetings (till CSG arrived) and would usually promise to undertake some action which invariably lapsed as soon as he rejoined the party line in Sydney. Oh, he did parlay the $10M for the bypass back to the CBD but this was to facilitate the development of West Byron. If his usual form holds good the money will, hopefully, never arrive.
If the ALP had won Paul Spooner would have instantly disappeared to the bottom of the backbench. The Sussex St powerbrokers have certainly lost interest in Ballina now that their union-powered bid has failed.
The Greens do not claim they will be anything more than a strong influence in parliament but as they were the only meaningful opposition during the last term their increased numbers will raise the pressure they can bring to bear on the mining/developer lickspittles that NSW has elected as a government. Remember, it has been the Greens and supporting environmentalists who have so far managed to stop Byron Shire becoming another Gold Coast.
And my congratulations to those ALP voters in Lismore who could not bear to preference the Greens and handed the seat back to the Nats.
Tom Tabart, Greens member, Bangalow
