Chris Dobney
The election of the National Party candidate for Richmond went off without a hitch at Cudgen Leagues Club on Saturday – almost.
Out of a field of four hopefuls, who senator Fiona Nash referred to as ‘four very strong local candidates, any one of whom would make a great MP’, Bilambil local Matthew Fraser was chosen to run against standing Labor MP Justine Elliot in next year’s federal election.
But having named him correctly once, the obviously previously crafted release went on to refer to the hapless candidate a further three times – twice by the wrong name.
‘John Smith has all the right credentials,’ it eulogised, ‘a great family man, a passion for his community and strong commitments particularly in the areas of small business, jobs for young people and cost-of-living pressures.’
And it continued, ‘As I campaign alongside John Smith in the coming months, I will be reminding locals that the only way to get rid of the Gillard Labor government is to vote out the local Labor MP.’
But as far as we know there will be no John Smith to vote for in Richmond come election day.
Next day, incumbent Justine Elliot was on the case, correctly naming her opponent twice.
Having successfully mounted that hurdle, she got stuck in.
‘I am sure that Matthew Fraser is a nice bloke, but they say that about Geoff Provest too, but a nice bloke gets run over by the Liberals once they are in government,’ Ms Elliot said.
‘You only have to look at the National Party in the state government to see the damage they are doing to regional communities by slashing thousands of jobs and services, so just imagine the damage they’d do if they were elected to the federal government.
The score so far: one-love in Ms Elliot’s favour.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
