LABOR stalwart and former candidate for Calare Kevin Duffy says if he lived in Bathurst he would have no choice but to vote National at Saturday’s state election.
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And he says his choice between the Nationals’ Andrew Gee and Labor candidate Bernard Fitzsimon in his home seat of Orange will be a toss of the coin.
Orange City councillor Duffy yesterday launched a stinging attack on the party he says has been part of his family’s DNA for 150 years, saying he was not surprised Labor support had plummeted in Bathurst and Lithgow in recent years.
And he pointed the finger squarely at Country Labor’s campaign manager for the seat of Bathurst, Lithgow man Matt Martin, who has been in the headlines this week following an incident at a pre-polling booth.
The Western Advocate reported yesterday that an official report had been lodged with the NSW Electoral Commission and police had been informed after Mr Martin allegedly became loud and abusive after being told Nationals volunteers had handed out unregistered how-to-vote election material in Lithgow last week.
Mr Martin denies acting inappropriately at the pre-polling station.
But Cr Duffy said Mr Martin was unfit to be campaign director and pointed to Mr Martin’s expletive-laden Twitter feed as proof.
The Twitter feed, which is headed with the disclaimer that “views, when expressed, are entirely my own”, features plenty of colourful descriptions of conservative MPs including “John F***ing Howard”, “the mad f*****’s running the country” in reference to Tony Abbott and “homophobic c***head” in reference to former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett.
Cr Duffy said Mr Martin’s airing of his views was not helping the local Labor branches.
“Twitter is publicly available to everyone and I don’t care what your religion or political persuasion is, that sort of language is unacceptable in anyone’s terms and people will shy away from it,” he said.
But Cr Duffy said Mr Martin was not the only problem for Labor. He accused the party of taking electorally popular but political irresponsible stands on the electricity privatisation and council amalgamations.
“When people like Paul Keating, Bob Carr, Martin Ferguson and David Borger – former prime ministers, premiers and ministers – agree with privatisation, I think you have to sit up and listen,” he said.
Mr Martin told the Western Advocate he had no comment to make about the contents of his Twitter feed.
“This election is about the privatisation of the electricity poles and wires and the failure of the Nationals to address job cuts in the Central West,” he said.
And a prepared statement from NSW Labor headquarters was similarly oblique.
“The Bathurst branch has an excellent history of producing and supporting great Labor MPs, most recently Bob Debus and Gerard Martin, and we look forward to adding Cass Coleman to that list come March 28,” it read.