Keith Duncan, Pimlico
Congratulations must go to the newly elected Ballina Mayor and councillors; especially to the Cadwallader ‘Independent’ team. Apart from some obviously ‘unintentional’ claims by Sharon and her ‘Independent’ team, most probably ‘taken out of context’ that ‘the Greens and Labor were going to have us all drinking toilet water and would plunder the Alstonville aquifer’ they simply ran an extraordinarily faultless, well organized, well resourced, well-funded and well-staffed campaign, (for ‘Independents’).
Now it’s certainly not unreasonable for many voters to be highly suspicious of candidates with strong links to the Nationals posing as ‘Independents’ given the present distrust of politicians like Scott Morrison and his Coalition Government, and especially the National Party, who are becoming experts at deceptive behaviour, especially ‘pork-barrelling’ and rorting of public money in order to win elections. But really, the Nationals also have a long history of having great leaders like Doug Anthony and Tim Fischer.
Why then would they now suddenly hide behind the independent banner with such an intelligent, honest, upstanding, capable and immensely popular leader like Barnaby Joyce and such progressive MPs like the irrefutably ethical and unequivocally incorruptible Bridget McKenzie, and such innovative, ambitious climate change policies spearheading Australia’s ground-breaking ‘clean coal’ commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050? Seriously, good luck Ballina.
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. 
