CABRAMATTA BY ELECTION, WINNERS AND LOSERS

Cabramatta By Election - everybody wins, and nobody wins

The Libs will be crowing, they managed to make Cabramatta, Labor’s second safest seat marginal with a swing of around 22%. That’s not a bad, given they only had a four week campaign with a relatively new recruit, Dai Le. And with Labor outspending them four to one, it was never going to be easy. I don’t think the Libs realistically thought they could win Cabramatta, but by coming so close, they could call the result a win.

Naturally, Labor won the seat (just) – so they too can call this a win. While it was a much closer shave then even they suspected, holding on to Cabramatta will give them time to re-group for 2011. Labor would be hoping their new Premier might have done something right to address the party’s failure in NSW which have accumulated over the past 13 years. And maybe by then the stench of a removed and cold ex ‘local’ member would have been forgotten.

And spare a thought for Lindsay Langlands, the Greens candidate. With little resources compared to the major party. Despite it all, that feisty, vocal local could also claim success in getting close to 10% with a home grown, DYI campaign. The significance on the continued rise of the Greens here and across Australia shouldn’t be understated. In this case they chose not to give preferences. Had they chosen to direct them, the results could be very different.

And the Cabra “community”, in what ever definition you chose, also had a win. The by election was an opportunity for Cabramatta to be heard. For once it was about Cabramatta, not the cross city tunnel, the northwest rail link, or if the black panther is roaming the streets of Sydney. The community that has been taken for granted relished delivering a kick in the pants to Labor- the pain will last all the way until 2011 because the seat is now marginal.

Oh and don’t forget Reba Meagher, she wins too. She no longer has to pretend she cares about that motley mob in Cabramatta or act like she ever wanted to live amongst that lot. She came out with a rather handsome $120k/year income for life and didn’t even have to hand out how to vote card on election day.

So everybody wins, right?

Labor had just lost a premier, deputy premier, treasurer, health minister… that talent pool is seriously in drought. A 63 year of Nick Lalich who will have to juggle state member and Mayor duties probably wasn’t Sussex Street’s top choice. However, like Lakemba, running a local Mayor as their candidate was a political strategy to stem the by election swing. Unfortunately, this would be at the expense of bringing fresh, energetic new talent.

While Nick Lalich’s sell is that he will be knocking on the doors of government to get more for Cabramatta, his track record as an apologist for the state Labor government is as good as Reba’s. Only now has Nick publicly said Reba living in Coogee was bad for the community… only took 13 years and after she retired. I reckon there will be huge fanfare for a couple of months and then the Cabramatta community will be neglected again.