The whirlwind of election promises, media photo calls and project funding announcements that has preoccupied politicians over the past few days has not gone unnoticed.
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Indeed, one independent candidate reckons in her neck of the woods, some are playing Santa with a shameful sack of promises – which, like Christmas, will soon get left behind and dumped.
Lee Watts, the former Upper Hunter local government leader and now independent in the state seat being vacated with the retirement of George Souris, has invoked the spirit of Christmases past to describe some of the electioneering.
Watts has taken aim at The Nationals, and around here Leader readers have been commenting on the litany of funding announcements being wheeled out just ahead of the March 28 poll.
As one commentator noted yesterday, where did this money suddenly appear from, when all we’ve heard for the past four years is the legacy of wastefulness inherited from Labor?
Down south, Watts has accused some of the local party of announcing funding for the Scone bypass – but ignoring the fine print that shows the money won’t be committed until 2019.
Around here, the deputy premier, Nationals MP Troy Grant, has been a welcome visitor, regular as clockwork since internal polling told them the Tamworth electorate was no sure thing this time around – heavily under attack from not just poles and wires, but the dreaded mining and resources backlash.
The promise of government funding, much of it contingent on an election win – although some query if that’s just the seat as well as the government – has been trumpeted across the electorate.
Back to Watts, who says she didn’t get excited about some of the latest announcements for bypasses for Muswellbrook and Singleton.
Locals had been hearing this promise by The Nationals for so many years, it was laughable, but obviously they wanted voters to believe all their Christmases had come at once.
“Safe seats don’t get real funding – they get taken for granted,” she said.
True perhaps. But our job, and the responsibility of all voters, is to make sure that where the promises are made, we keep the mouthpieces honest and true to their word.
The reality is that while local MP Kevin Anderson has welcomed a windfall of money over the past few weeks, we remain vigilant about what happens to it after the election.
It is up to all of us, of whatever political colour, to keep our politicians true to their word.
